Wendell Smith, the St David’s coach, is confident his team will retain their Logic Premier Division title on Sunday against Southampton Rangers, a title race many expected them to have wrapped up weeks ago.

A couple of defeats, coupled with last month’s rainy weather, meant that St David’s were not able to increase their lead at the top of the table where they have been for most of the season.

“Yeah, the way it was going it looked as if it would have been done by now,” Smith said, who missed his team’s last two games as he was off the Island.

“I missed the Willow Cuts game and Bailey’s Bay game and read about how ours was the only Premier Division match that got played, which ended up being Rangers’ bye weekend, so that was a benefit to them as we ended up not gaining any points at all.”

Now it has come down to a winner-take-all scenario with second-place Rangers at Lord’s on Sunday, at a ground where Rangers have enjoyed some success over St David’s in recent years.

“They dropped those early matches, to Somerset and Willow Cuts, but have been on a pretty good streak since then while we’ve had a couple of hiccups,” said Smith, who believes the in-form Dion Stovell as one of the big threats on Sunday along with the likes of captain Janeiro Tucker and spin bowler Derrick Brangman.

“We had a session last night and I would have liked to see a full squad out, but we have a couple of guys who are training with the national squad so I can understand that,” Smith said. “It’s just a matter who plays better on the day, really.

“It’s not like we have to look to anybody to do us any favours, our players just have to produce. We’ve battled a lot over the years, they’ve beaten us and we’ve beaten them and it’s just a matter of who produces on the day.

“We have tended to have more favourable results when we have played at Rangers Oval in the league. We beat them earlier in the year and last year, but they have come down to Lord’s and beaten us convincingly in the Belco Cup.”

The bowling has been the strength for St David’s this season and the batting of Stovell could hold the key for Rangers.

“He’s batting really well, probably the best I’ve seen him bat,” Smith said.

“His century in the Eastern Counties [against Bay], considering the amount of pressure he had on him with the team 20 for four and defending a trophy that they hadn’t won for so long, speaks highly for any player when they can produce runs when their team really needs it.”

With Delyone Borden likely to be missing again, St David’s will be without a key spin bowler in their bowling attack led by George O’Brien, Kevin Hurdle, Justin and Rudell Pitcher.

Del Hollis will do the bulk of the slow bowling for the champions.

“George has picked up wickets regularly all year and has batted well all year,” Smith added. “The other key batsmen for us are OJ Pitcher and Fiqre Crockwell who both had great knocks in Cup Match while Sammy Robinson in our big matches, like the Eastern Counties last year, has come good.

“Delyone is a class player when it comes to batting and fielding and I rate him the top spinner on the Island, to be honest. We’ll wait to see what his situation is.”

Defeat would leave St David’s without both the Eastern Counties and league titles, but there is no comparison, according to Smith, with the Eastern Counties defeat to Cleveland being the low point of their season.

The draw for next year sees St David’s playing in the final of the 2015 series at Lord’s and Smith says that could be a good thing.

“That’s a blessing in that because the Eastern Counties means so much to St David’s Islanders, those guys will train all the way up to the end of August,” said Smith. “If we play the first or second match and are unsuccessful it would have been hard to motivate the players once Cup Match goes. And it’s going to be at Lord’s.”