St David’s are a couple of wins away from a third league title in four seasons, after last weekend’s crucial win over Willow Cuts enabled them to open a 24-point gap between themselves and Cuts in third place in the Logic Premier Division standings.

OJ Pitcher, the St David’s captain, expects another tough match when they take on Eastern Counties rivals Bailey’s Bay, who will be playing under new captain Rodney Trott after the resignation of Stephen Outerbridge last weekend.

“I was very surprised to see that because we all know Stephen is a competitor,” Pitcher said. “Obviously ‘Picnic’ is just as valuable with his knowledge of the game. In Cup Match, he pretty much proves himself every year. If we’re in trouble, ‘Picnic’ steps up to the plate.”

St David’s lead Southampton Rangers, who are second, by five points but have a game in hand, which will be made up tomorrow because Rangers have a bye. That will give St David’s an excellent opportunity to strengthen their grip at the top of the table going into the last two rounds of matches. St David’s play St George’s next weekend before hosting Rangers at Lord’s in their final match, while Rangers have another tough match next weekend against Willow Cuts.

“We’ve been working hard all year and it is difficult to win back-to-back titles,” Pitcher said. “We were looking to repeat by going undefeated for a second straight season, which no other team has ever done.

“That obviously fell through when we lost to Somerset, but we’re still well on track for the league title. It’s been an outright team effort this year; not one individual who has carried the team the whole year, but individual performances by different players that brought us through on different occasions. A prime example was Loren Marshall who hasn’t played since the Belco Cup and in his first game back got 46 not out [against Willow Cuts] and saved the game for us.

“It hasn’t been easy for us. All the teams are pretty evenly poised, especially the top four, including Bay.”

Last weekend, St David’s were without Delyone Borden and Angelo Cannonier, creating an opening for Marshall to come in and play a key role. Pitcher admits that the win over Willow Cuts was significant.

“If we win our next two games, we will basically have it wrapped up before we play Rangers,” he said. “But we know the significance of the game on Sunday against our Eastern Counties rivals, which is something we all look forward to — both St David’s and Bay players.

“It’s going to be very challenging because right now Bay have all their players back, Tre [Manders] and Terryn [Fray] are in excellent form and it definitely will be a competitive match. Hopefully the rain holds off.”

This will be the first time the teams have met at Lord’s since St David’s dethroned the former Eastern Counties Cup holders last year. The expected showdown between the teams in the second round of the county competition last weekend failed to materialise because Cleveland had upset St David’s in the first round.

“We’ve been talking about it on the team chat on Whatsapp, that this will be like our county cup against Bay,” Pitcher said. “We’re a tight community down here in St David’s; we all grew up together and know each other’s game.”

Also tomorrow, two relegation-threatened teams meet at Wellington Oval, where bottom side Cleveland host a Somerset team that will make another trip to St George’s, this time no doubt hoping to have a full team. Last weekend they could field only nine players and were beaten by St George’s, who trail Somerset by 13 points in the battle to avoid the second relegation spot.

St George’s face a tougher match this weekend when they travel to Somerset Cricket Club to meet a Willow Cuts team looking to bounce back from last weekend’s heartbreaking defeat by St David’s, which has all but eliminated them from the title race.

The promotion race in the First Division is down to three teams, with a point separating the top two, Western Stars and Flatts, while Somerset Bridge are 20 points behind the leaders in third place.

It will be a busy weekend for Bridge, who take on holders Southampton Rangers in today’s final of the Western Counties Cup before playing Stars tomorrow in a match that could effectively eliminate them from promotion. Flatts are away to Devonshire Rec in the other match.