According to Eastern Counties' rules and regulations chairman Stephen Douglas, the popular competition is alive and kicking since the inception of the new 60/40 over format earlier this year.

Douglas, a former Cleveland County player, who now spends most of his weekends officiating behind the stumps, believes that the new format has not only revived the Island's second oldest competition, but more importantly, has encouraged teams to take a positive approach, thus providing the fans with attractive cricket. Already this summer there have been two clear-cut results with champions St. David's victorious on both occasions over Cleveland and more recently, Flatts.

Now, the Islanders are poised to go for the treble when they take on perennial arch rivals Bailey's Bay on August 31.

"When we assessed it after the game we were pleased with what's taking pace as far as how the new regulations have fallen into place," said Douglas.

"I think it's always a great opportunity to get results.

"All we tried to do this year was stamp out the team that batted first from batting all day, because if it was like it was last year I don't think that St.David's would have taken the chances that they took.

"I think that they would have probably dug in there and batted for a longer period of time for less runs or probably for another 20 overs for the same amount of runs."

This year's Cup Match umpire also pointed out that the new format was further vindicated during Saturday's match when Flatts were asked to bowl 30 overs before lunch and had in fact tossed down 40, thus forcing St.David's on the offensive instead of batting out the day.

"It's encouraging a lot of positive things," he added.

"It's encouraging teams to go for their strokes and to pick more balanced teams now. You don't have to pick a team with all these batsmen anymore. You now have to include bowlers in your team, because the team batting second has plenty of overs to catch your score. So I also think that is makes you pick a more balanced team."

For those cricket purists who remain sceptical over the new format, Douglas added: "I think that people who don't understand cricket will just complain about it.

"But I think that from a cricket point of view and from people who understand cricket that was cricket at its best.

"By 3.11 p.m. they (Flatts) had bowled St.David's out in 69 overs, and if you were to look at it very carefully the average team is asked in the second innings to bat for somewhere between 40-48 overs.

"So you are now looking at an average Sunday match where most teams don't even bat for 50 overs most of the time."