St David’s replaced neighbours St George’s at the top of the One Communications Premier Division after handing Western Stars a crushing 83-run defeat at Lord’s yesterday.

The home side scored 234 all out after being sent into bat and then dismissed a Stars side who batted a man short for 151 to take advantage of St George’s slip up against Southampton Rangers at Wellington Oval.

All-rounder Allan Douglas was the toast of the St David’s dressing room after smashing a typically aggressive 97 from 91 balls with nine sixes and four fours and claiming two wickets.

The middle-order batsman shared in two fruitful partnerships with his cousin Chris Douglas (77) and Brian Hall (49) to put the home side back on track after they had slipped to 32 for three in the seventh over.

Douglas eventually fell three runs shy of a century and his dismissal triggered a slide that saw St David’s last five wickets fall for 55 runs.

Chris Douglas, the St David’s captain and wicketkeeper, was next top scorer with 32 from 64 at the top of the order, while tail-ender Arthur Pitcher chipped in with an unbeaten 26 from 39 balls.

Ankoma Cannonier and Hall, the former Stars captain, were among those making starts for St David’s but unable to build upon them.

Seth Campbell, Tybrae Robinson and Nyon Steede took two wickets each for Stars.

Jekon Edness led the run chase for a Stars side that struggled to the build partnerships and were eventually dismissed in the 49th over well shy of their target.

The captain and wicketkeeper gathered 50 from 86 balls with five fours before he was the sixth wicket to fall to leave Stars reeling at 126 for six.

Opener Jaiden Manders was next top scorer with 33 from 41 with six fours and Justin Robinson 19 from 33 with three fours.

Kevin Hurdle led the St David’s attack with three for 40 while Allan Douglas took two for 26 to cap his display.