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Police (169 and 42-1) beat Empire (137 and 73) by nine wickets

Police Captain Rudolph Clarke celebrated his 27th birthday in grand style as Police brushed aside ICB Empire before tea yesterday to be the sole leaders of the Courts/Suzuki Division 1.

Clarke standing in as captain for Leslie Reifer, who is on holiday overseas led the lawmen to their first victory over the Bank Hall side in 12 years.

He told SunSport his team journeyed to Bank Hall expecting three points for first innings lead.

They managed an additional five and with plenty of time to spare. Resuming on 44 for two and a lead of 12, Empire disintegrated after only 14.2 overs.

Medium-pacer Alvin Campbell secured another five-wicket haul (five for 36) to end the match with 10 for 79.

Campbell and Proverbs (three for 21) shared all six wickets to fall on the final day.

Empire's problems started when overweek batsman Nicky Bowen was unable to resume because of an injured finger. But the crisis really set in when they lost key batsmen Roland Holder and Shawn Graham within the space of two runs.

Prior to that the other overweek batsman, Peter Springer, had fallen after adding only three.

At 62 for five with Bowen injured and Patterson Thompson absent, Empire's fate was virtually assured.

Stanton Proverbs hastened Police's victory with an unbeaten 35 as Police reached the 42 required for victory in 5.5 overs.

"It is the best birthday gift I've ever had in my life," Clarke said after the match.

"The ten guys who marched onto the field with me performed creditably. They remained focused and the bowlers bowled their hearts out."

Police manager Boyd Goodridge said people would now have to give his team more respect.

The comment was his rebuttal to what he said were suggestions that the 1999 team was not as good as the championship winning side of last year, even though the only person missing was Derwin Thompson.

"We normally do it in threes, so we're looking to repeat," Goodridge said.