Pretoria - If we are to believe the slogan ``Students Rule, Okay'' then Free State University fancy their chances for a place in the national club championship final on Friday.

This year's host club, CBC Old Boys, have similar designs as do Old Grey, from Port Elizabeth, which means that Section 1 is still wide open. So when CBCOB meet Free State University on Thursday at Memorial Park in Groenkloof the small matter of who is going to win Section 1 should be decided.

Depending of course on two factors: the result of today's games and the question of the spread of bonus points which have been introduced this year to make the competition more interesting. Under the bonus points system introduced this year, Free State, Old Grey and CBC Old Boys have a bonus point, but the unbeaten Kovsies have 13 log points to the nine apiece for CBC Old Boys and Old Grey.

It is far simpler in Section 2 with its mixed bunch of all sorts and where unbeaten Zoo Lake moved to the top when Cape Town University's batting crumbled as easy as puff pastry. The Gauteng side, who escaped the hangman on day two when they squeezed through against Collegians, wrapped up their game against Ikeys by 118 runs.

As it is Kovsies' powerful top order batting led by Morne Van Wyk enabled the Bloemfontein side to sit pretty at the top of the log when they won by six wickets with 15 overs to spare at Technikon Oval yesterday. Van Wyk, who has stepped out from the Boeta Dippenaar shadow this week, has written his own script with an impressive batting performance, rattling off 90 yesterday off only 77 balls.

Set a target of 207 Free State rattled off the runs at an impressive run rate with Van Wyk so dominant that the Maties bowling attack buckled under the pressure. His driving was as powerful as was his shot selection and his innings of 90 took his total to 284 in three innings and an average of 142. Van Wyk, who has given up the wicketkeeping gloves, also bagged three for 35 to turn in a man of the match style performance.

At Memorial Park yesterday RAU, the defending champions of the MTN Trophy, were all but eliminated when CBC Old Boys held their nerve in a tight game to take the honours by 15 runs as Old Grey remain in contention as well by beating Lafarge in a match transferred from Harlequins to Onderwyskollege because of a saturated pitch. Thieves may have raided the ground overnight and the covers are now adorn some squatter shack but their bowling held together under a late charge and a century which came from Zander de Bruyn but it was all for nothing as the tight bowling and fielding placed pressure on the RAU batsmen. De Bruyn's innings was well-paced but it did little to help the title-holders in their quest for a second final.

After a disappointing batting effort on Monday CBC Old Boys recovered to score 244 with solid half-centuries from Dries Cronje and Robbie Walter before Nico Martin's big-hitting tactics earned the Groenkloof club an outside chance of edging RAU. His innings of 77 off 59 balls with three sixes among the 13 boundaries was the sort of fireworks needed to boost the total after a solid top-order foundation.

Old Grey's consistent batting kept them in their final plan contentions although they need CBC Old Boys to upset Free State University. Mark Rushmere found something to smile about for a change with an innings of 45 while Kevin Duckworth's opening shots in a score of 55 set the Port Elizabeth side on their way.

Wayne Radford's five wickets for Zoo Lake rattled more than the Cape Town University confidence after the Gauteng champions of last season found Alwyn Vorster putting a solid innings of 65 together in a total of 230. Normally the Cape Town students would have set out with confidence when tackling such a competitive target but they failed abysmally to mount anything remotely looking like a challenge.

Police, from East London, now escape the wooden spoon slot in Section 2 when they beat West End and Boksburg collected a second merited victory by beating Collegians.