EAST LONDON (South Africa) - For Griqualand West batsmen, well three of them anyway, a diet of Border bowling last night represented the equivalent of dining out at the best restaurant this seaside retirement village can boast.

Opening batsman and former captain Micky Arthur provided the cutlery, Willie Dry the steaks, and all-rounder Ottis Gibson the grilling equipment. And when the winning run came from a wide delivered by bean pole Piet Botha, umpire Cyril Mitchley's signal was all which Griquas chairman, Mike Doherty, needed to raid the dressing-room fridge and splash out the victory champagne. After all, 110 years is a long time to wait between winning trophies.

Doherty, quite a dab hand as a batsman in his day, has seen enough celebrations down the years, usually those held by the opposition who occasionally offer the vanquished a sip of the bubbly stuff as a magnanimous gesture for taking part and losing, to know the feeling all to well. Winning the Standard Bank Cup in a final washed all the past disappointments away.

Yet, when the margin of victory was tallied last night with Griquas scoring the needed 199 for the loss of four wickets and more than four overs to spare, the result was rather one-sided, which makes for a boring limited-overs game. And while the pitch at Buffalo Park, although two-paced and without the flaws of last week, was still on the slow side, Arthur and Dry made a meal of the Border bowling with a dash of flair and style.It was meat ball stuff: all served up on a platter and well appreciated.

If you are going to bowl short or wide on putty you must expect to get tapped around; just made for Arthur and Dry's complimentary, if opposite, batting styles during their partnership of 152.

As anticipated, however, it was the firm of Kepler Wessels, Pat Symcox and Gibson who ran a careful measuring tape over the proceedings and almost tailor made the victory after Border won the toss and decided to bat first. They did not have a hope. With only 109 runs on the board after 30 overs, Border were fortunate to reach 198 for six. Wessels marshalled the bowling attack well and shut down the scoring rate with some clever field placings. It helps, of course, to have bowling which knows its limitations and acts accordingly.

Border did what they could, and with dry, breezy weather the outfield was allowed to dry out, becoming flat and fast and a little bumpy. The marshy patches which had created problems five nights before, making fieldsmen unsure of their footing, had gone. Uncertainty when going down to pick up the ball remained. Part of the problem here is the variety of grasses on the outfield make for an uneven surface; then again we cannot expect Centurion Park type outfields in every ground in South Africa.

But Wessels, astute and wise to the opportunities of keeping the opponents from scoring too fast, applied the handbrake when he wanted and eased on the throttle when he had to. The result: Border, worked into a corner, were unable to post a challenging target for Griquas.

Botha, opening the innings with Brad White, became the batting version of Mr Plod while White, unable to restrain himself on a pitch more suitable for snail racing, quickly departed when falling into the trap of misjudging the pace of the surface. After that flurry of activity we were treated to The Mr Plod and the Wayne Wiblin ``making the most of what we have'' show.

Run-making was far from easy, even with veterans such as Wessels and Symcox ambling about the field. But even their creaking joints knew a lot more than those dressed in those dreadful chocolate colours. Both have been through it all before and at all levels. Which was the difference between the experience in the two sides.

When Botha departed for a well carved 45, followed by Wiblin for a half-century of some composure and well-place shots, the Border innings failed to ignite; in fact the slow fuse spluttered along until the last few overs when Craig Sugden realised the total was not going to be enough and did what he could with a makeshift performance.

Not surprising with the sudden flurry in run-scoring there was some confusion on the scoreboard. At one point the total was 181 put back to 179 and moved up to 183 all in the space of two dot balls. This no doubt explains why the operator had the word ``dropped'' splashed across the electronic screen when Garth Roe missed Sugden off a no-ball. It is perhaps an esoteric point but local officials in this insular part of the world have a habit of stubbing their toe on a beach pebble thinking it is a rock then not looking beneath it to find the true story.

Griquas quickly lost Martyn Gidley, whose 60 against Gauteng did much to keep the top-order folding the way a wet cardboard box does. And his departure for a duck to a Makhaya Ntini delivery was greeted with such glee by the locals (players included) that the high fives were still going on when Dry scored his first runs three minutes later. After that the Border attack efforts at can opening was about as effective as opening a tin of bully beef with a blunt corkscrew.

The direction finder was misplaced as well. Vasbert Drakes, Ntini and Tyron Henderson were suddenly serving up lashings of tripe and little else. How Arthur and Dry helped themselves. And strangely Border's skipper Pieter Strydom left an on-side gap big enough for a second Titanic to sink, and without the rearrangement of the deckchairs.

In fact the Arthur/Dry roadshow arranged the deckchairs to suit themselves and renamed the ``ship'' they were steering Kimberley Hope, rattling off the runs. Strydom switched the bowling around in a bid to upset the batsmen's concentration. He might as well, have saved himself the effort. The runs flowed faster than the nearby Buffalo River in spate.

By the time the score reached 156 the disgruntled fans, who had finally decided it was time to support their side, had become a disgruntled bunch unable to appreciate batting standards a little above the previous three innings we had been put through over five days. Although the grumpiness may have been more as a result of drinking too many frosties from the cooler bag at Border's lack of success.

Arthur has been around long enough to know how to bat under such conditions and Border, in their second final in a month lacked the experience to pressurise either batsman into errors. It was careful batting, solid, sound and making the most of the loose ball. And the longer they batted the longer the faces became and the jaws dropped. Instead of trying to make things happen Strydom waited for the batsmen to make their own mistakes.

It doesn't quite work that way. And Strydom, as have so many captains before, fell into the trap. Not at all a clever tactic.

By the time Ntini, brought back for his second spell which he bowled out, moved one off the seam for Dry to get it all wrong and give Ian Mitchell a straight forward catch, it was too little too late. Even when the lanky Botha's two wickets in his first over to get rid of Wessels for a single and then the valiant Arthur for an inspiring 83 it was too late.

There were too few runs to play with, too few overs remaining and too many wickets to get.

Symmo joined Gibson and the tall Bajan smashed a couple around and Botha, bowling a wide, ended the agony for the spectators, some whose remarks and knowledge of the game seems to have come from the bottom of a rugby scrum, by bowling a wide.

An incongruous way of ending a final and Border, who failed to lay a finger clipping on a trophy last century, have gone another 100 years without so much as placing a smudged finger print on one this millennium. For Griquas they have managed a trophy in each century which is something to smile about and Kepler Wessels can now take his bow of the domestic game as well, a trophy as a farewell gift.