TELEPHONE and internet detective work ascertained that Exhall and Wixford look, for the second successive season, to have been denied npower Village Cup glory by "manufactured" opposition, writes Mervyn Collins.

Having lost out to the might of Wales in the shape of Sully Centurions at Lord's last season, the Cotswold Hills League side fancied their chances of going one better this summer.

However, Exhall's defeat at the hands of first timers Stockton left several unanswered questions in terms of eligibility of certain players in the Warwickshire League second division side - a puzzle that competition organisers were unable to unravel in 2004.

When the sports editor of Stockton's local newspaper admits to not having heard of one of the players - then eyebrows are inevitably raised. When that player is named in the scorebook as A Mistry - more doubt as to his eligibility creeps in.

A glance at various websites managed to pinpoint a couple of other Asian players to a team in south Northampton-shire, although Mr Mistry was still a mystery!

Rupesh and Jonti - aka Rup-esh Sarvankar and Shushrut Nasnodkar - did manage to find a place in this season's match reports before a call to the Stockton secretary Rich-ard Powell finally put paid to Exhall's chances of a repri-eve.

Amet Mistry is the son of the club's league umpire, who was also secretary of a club called Bharat who amalgamated with Stockton three years ago, Hence the Asian influence, although there was still no mention of the name A Mistry in match reports.

Any way, the Stockton secretary did admit that the three Asian players aren't regulars and do play their league cricket elsewhere but, in terms of eligibility for the Village Cup, they meet up with the criteria.

Strangely enough, though, Mistry appeared in last weekend's report having scored an unbeaten 78 in helping Stockton, who visit Langtons in this weekend's group final, to a ten-wicket triumph last Saturday!