Two clubs who endured miserable winters will be hoping the warmer weather brings a change of fortune as the cricket season begins tomorrow with a full slate of league matches.

Southampton Rangers and St. David's were both relegated during the football season, but things should be a lot different during the cricket season as both are expected to lead the chase for honours.

Rangers, who won the league last season, open the defence of their title away to Police in the pick of Sunday's matches, while St. David's, with Glenn Blakeney joining their ranks from Bailey's Bay in the biggest transfer scoop, have a team that will demand respect once captain Clay Smith and Allen Richardson return from suspension.

Because of football, both teams have been slow in starting training, but have accelerated now that the season is over.

"We started off a bit slow because football went right down to the wire as far as relegation for the club,'' said Rangers player-coach Clevie Wade.

"A lot of players were involved in the football programme and to me were more focused on football at the time so I gave them a bit of leeway until the season was over and once that was completed, training started picking up.

"Right now we're looking pretty solid.'' Rangers have a new captain this season in allrounder Janeiro Tucker but he will have plenty of experience to call on -- including Wade who plans to make this his farewell season -- as the club bid to defend their league title. They are also in the Camel Cup for the first time and will meet St. George's in the May 27 semi-final.

"That's all the talk around here, fans and players are looking for the cricket team to make up for the football team,'' said Wade. "They are really looking for good things from the cricket team to boost the morale and the harmony in the community.

"What I drilled to them in pre-season is that defending the trophy is going to be harder. Teams are going to be gunning for us and no game is going to be easy because everybody wants to beat the champions.

"I'm just trying to drill it into them to stay focused, work hard and be prepared for the battle. When it gets tough we just have to be strong to deal with the pressure.'' Rangers surprised many by winning the league last year, their first league triumph in two decades. There were some memorable victories along the way, after they suffered an opening day loss to Cleveland and then won 13 league matches on the trot.

"All winter during the football season they were still talking about the exciting games that took us to the league title and that's how much they appreciated winning that title,'' added Wade.

"I'm looking forward to putting on a good show this season. I told the players this will probably be my final season as far as playing. I'm going to give as much to the team as I can as far as playing.'' St. David's, too, are keen to erase memories of a disappointing year for their football team who won just once all season. But the cricketers will certainly do much better than that, and have a good chance of improving on last year's fifth place finish which saw them just miss out on the Camel Cup.

Clay Smith will captain the team again, but not until his suspension ends at the end of June. The club were in the process of deciding this week who would lead the team in Smith's absence.

And with veteran Allen Richardson also missing early games because of a suspension, and some senior players still not started training, the team will have a youthful tilt during the early matches.

"We practically only have Del Hollis, Sammy Robinson and Glenn Blakeney to start with for the first couple of games, while Lionel Cann has just come out after taking a break after soccer,'' said Delby Borden, chairman of cricket at the club.

The team will be built around youngsters Chris Foggo, Landro Minors and OJ Pitcher with Borden's son, Delyone, also likely to see more action this season, along with George O'Brien who has returned after a season's absence.

"We're looking forward to getting a lot of cricket out of young Shannon Raynor who had a lay-off because of injury,'' said Borden who also welcomes back Phillip Pitcher from their neighbours.

The early schedule has been favourable to St. David's who meet Social Club in the opening match.

"Hopefully after our first two or three games we'll get stronger,'' said Borden.

"On Sunday the youngsters should be able to hold their own against Social Club.'' Tomorrow's other matches see Warwick hosting St. George's at Southampton Oval, Somerset taking on Flatts at Somerset, Western Stars travelling to White Hill field to meet Somerset Bridge, while Devonshire Rec. host Willow Cuts and Bailey's Bay entertain PHC at Sea Breeze Oval. All the matches are 50 overs starting at noon.

Scoreboards please! Clubs are reminded to submit their scoreboards to The Royal Gazette as soon as possible after the conclusion of Sunday's games. Scoreboards can be faxed to our offices on 292-2498.

Janeiro Tucker: will take over the captaincy of defending league champions Southampton Rangers.