IN A setting more village green than international game, England A romped home for their first victory of this tour, by six wickets, in the one-day match with South Australia, the Sheffield Shield champions.

The match was played on an open ground outside the walls of the renowned Oval, much to England's disappointment, to accommodate the four-day game starting tomorrow.

There was no quibble about the pitch itself, but the facilities were less than first-class. At one stage Michael Vaughan took his life in his hands scuttling across an adjoining main road to retrieve the ball; the sightscreens looked to have been home knitted, and the scoreboard carried only the barest details.

No one in the middle knew the situation when the England captain, Adam Hollioake, scored the winning run until spectators started clapping and waving. It was all charmingly quaint as people sprawled out of the sun beneath the gum trees.

But Hollioake had a serious point to make afterwards: ``I was quite annoyed on a couple of occasions. I needed binoculars to see the scoreboard and there were no details telling me how many overs each bowler had sent down.

``So I had to play it by ear. I shall just have to keep my own count in future. We were a bit miffed at having to play on the outside ground, but we didn't complain. I said to the players: 'Let's get on with the game and then see how we feel.' We won, so you won't hear any complaints in the dressing room now.''

Both as diplomat and as all-rounder Hollioake took the major honours. His three wickets included a very sharp low one-handed return catch to dismiss Jeff Vaughan and he had Greg Blewett an Australian Test contender, who will be playing for Middlesex next summer - caught at short extra cover.

South Australia, surprisingly, chose to bat first on a pitch where the ball seamed about early on. Dean Headley claimed the first wicket in a very good opening spell, and it was only towards the end when Darren Lehmann hit a spirited 61 off 59 balls, surviving one chance, that South Australia were able to post any kind of a total.

Mark Butcher took England a long way on the victory road with a strong innings of 76 off 103 balls.

At the end Hollioake and Craig White kept up the pace with an unbroken partnership of 58 off 12 overs.