Wendell Smith's history making feat of 1,000 runs in the classic was almost overshadowed by younger brother Clay's pair of ducks.

Wendell, needing just seven to become the first member of the exclusive 1,000 club, was clearly relieved when he pushed a single on the leg side during the first innings.

"It was the most nervous I have been since the first year I played,'' admitted the former St. George's captain who only scored his first century in the match three years ago in his last appearance, making 129 and 59 to move ahead of then leading scorer Lloyd James who finished his Cup Match career on 988.

"I had two most horrible nights of sleep. On Wednesday night I was up at 4.30 and last night at 3.35 and couldn't go back to sleep. All I wanted to do was get those seven runs and I wasn't able to enjoy my innings until I had those seven runs behind me.

"Dexter told me he wanted to experience taking first ball in Cup Match and I was more than happy to let him have it.'' Smith's knocks of 26 and 58 put him on 1,077 runs, from 33 innings in a career that began back in 1976. As a winning captain of the team and a holder of the opening record with Arnold Manders, there are not too many goals left for the experienced left-hander.

"I only had two personal feats I wanted to accomplish, the opening partnership record (143 in 1991) held by Kenny Cann and Campbell Simons (138) and I attained that with Arnold, and scoring a century in Cup Match,'' said Smith.

"This was something I never envisaged. The only way that came into being was through my scores in 1992 when I got 129 and 59 and that pushed me way up. I was trying to put it into perspective and it's not really that great an achievement because I batted for 32 innings and averaged roughly 30 runs.'' Smith sees two other players also in with a good chance of reaching 1,000 runs -- one of them who failed to score a run in Cup Match this year, his brother Clay.

The other is the game's top scorer this year, Albert Steede, who scored 89 and 35 to take his aggregate in the classic to 438 while Clay is stuck on 391.

"Making a century has never been on my mind, my priority is winning,'' said Steede afterwards. "If we had another 45 minutes it would have been a great challenge, but it was always difficult with 15 minutes plus 20 overs.

"I thought we played admirably today, considering they batted such a long time in the first innings.'' Added Steede: "I felt comfortable out there today, the wicket played easy for the batsmen, good for the spin bowlers, but once you settled in you could get on top of the bowlers easy.'' MILESTONE -- St. George's fans show their appreciation as Wendell Smith becomes the first player to score 1000 runs in Cup Match.