Chris Douglas became the sixth Somerset player in a row to win the Stevedoring Services Cup Match Man of the Match award — and the batsman says that the West Enders’ dominance could continue for a few more years.

Douglas won the award after scoring 69, his first half-century in the Annual Classic, in Somerset’s only innings of a rain-affected draw.

“As far as dominating, we’ve done that for the five years that we’ve had the cup and I can say even before we had the cup that we were starting to show our dominance,” said Douglas, who received a $1,500 travel voucher and a $500 gift certificate for sporting goods, as well as a plaque.

“We came close to getting the cup a year or two before we actually won the cup, and looking at Colts Cup Match and the current team that we have, I don’t see why we can’t have a decade more of keeping the cup.”

Douglas, who is set to return to school in Cardiff next week, quickly hit form with his club team, St David’s, after returning for the summer, helping them retain the league title.

He had scores of 47 against Western Stars and 54 against Bailey’s Bay before striking 114 not out against Cleveland at Wellington Oval, where St David’s posted a season-high 458 after he and cousin Allan Douglas Jr shared in a partnership of 259.

Two-and-a-half weeks later, he was back at St George’s to score his first fifty in his ninth Cup Match appearance.

The East Enders have not won Cup Match since 2011, when they overcame Somerset by two wickets.

Since then, the cup-holders have won three times — by ten wickets in 2012, and by eight wickets in 2014 and 2015. Douglas believes the nucleus of their team could be together for years to come.

“I’m one of the older guys in the team,” the 27-year-old said. “Stephen Outerbridge, Jekon Edness and Dion Stovell are older than me and Dion came back into the team this year. We have our top-six batsmen, now can we find a good wicketkeeper to [eventually] replace Jekon? We have one or two guys in mind, so it won’t be hard to fill that spot.

“When you look at the likes of Joshua Gilbert, Alex Dore, Deunte Darrell, William White and Kwasi James, there are a lot of options to come in to hold the bat.

“Then you also have bowlers like Justin Donawa, Micah Simons and Sheldon Caesar, so Somerset have a lot of guys who came come in.”

The longest Cup Match unbeaten streak was held by St George’s between 1960 and 1978 before Somerset’s 20 years without a win ended with Randy Horton’s team clinching a famous victory in 1979.

“If we get to the goal of dominating for the next decade, we could look at 15 and then 20 years as being the most dominant team ever,” Douglas said. “It’s a bit premature to think that far, but it is something to look forward to.”

Had it not been for Somerset’s plan to declare at 3.30pm, Douglas might have reached a century, as he did not look troubled. However, an earlier declaration would have given them a better chance of winning.

“The way I got out in Cup Match, I went after a ball that I could have [defended],” he said. “If I wanted to stay there the whole day I probably could have stayed there, but our coach [Jeff Richardson] wanted to go for the victory. It was always going to be a hard task.

“If the goal was to win the match then, yes, we batted too long and could have come off an hour earlier.”

Douglas added: “I told myself before I went into the game that this was going to be my year. I went into Cup Match with 300-plus runs after four or five innings and with all that good cricket, I had to reward it with something.”

Douglas’s award completed a double for the family, with Allan Jr, of St George’s, winning a second straight Safe Hands award. Allan Sr won the Man of the Match award in 1990.

“We don’t have bets, but it is always about doing well and seeing who comes out on top,” Douglas said of the rivalry with his cousin.

“I found out he doesn’t like to compete against me. He prefers to play with me than against me.”

Stevedoring came on board as sponsor in 2015.