[naviga:font color="BLUE"] Bailey's Bay 252-9

St. David's 231-4

Centurion OJ Pitcher's highest ever score ensured St.David's retained the Eastern Counties cup by drawing against Bailey's Bay at Sea Breeze Oval.

Pitcher's splendid 146 not out, part of a mammoth 196-run stand with his captain Delyone Borden, crushed Bay's hopes of reclaiming the trophy they surrendered to St.David's in 2005.

The challengers, who set their opponents a target of 252 runs for victory, threatened to pull off a shock win and had St.David's wobbling at 35 for four after the nagging bowling of seamer Jim West (three for 50) had ripped out their early order.

But Pitcher's entertaining ton on Saturday put paid to those ambitions with no little help from the disciplined Borden who played a true captain's knock with his patient 42 coming off 132 balls.

Still, Bay were left wondering what might have been had they held on to their catches with guest players Charlie and Jemeiko Marshall both dropped danger man Pitcher, who admitted Bay's slippery fingers had let him off the hook.

"That was one of my best innings'," said the young Bermuda international. "It's my highest ever score and it was important because they had us in a spot of trouble with four wickets down.

"They put me down a couple of times but whenever I looked to be getting a little bit too excited Delyone (Borden) came over and calmed me down. He's a very level-headed guy."

While the batting pair's top priority was to suffocate any chance Bay had of winning the game, when Pitcher opened up his shoulders to become more aggressive later in the afternoon it seemed as though Bay's target could be within their sights.

And Pitcher admitted he was slightly disappointed his team couldn't secure their fourth straight Eastern Counties final win.

"At one point I thought we could have gone for it and I spoke to Delyone about whether we should step it up," said Pitcher, whose team fell 21 runs short of victory.

"It was a shame we didn't get home as it would have been good to win four straight final."

Borden was full of praise for Pitcher who he believes has the ability to become Bermuda national team's top batsman.

"It was tough at times and Bay fought hard. But when it got tough we stepped it up. OJ was dropped a few times but played some world class shots and should become the best batsman in Bermuda."

St.David's won the toss and elected to field as Bay declared on 252 for nine off 54 overs with Stephen Outerbridge (69) and Irving Romaine (64) the top scorers. Pace bowler George O'Brien took four for 68 and Del Hollis, in what could be his final Counties match, took four for 74 for St.David's.

Captain Rodney Trott praised Bay batsmen Outerbridge and Romaine for their half centuries but admitted their bowling had lacked sufficient bite to bowl out St.David's.

"I congratulate OJ Pitcher and Delyone Borden for their superb stand," he said.

"Unfortunately we didn't hold our catches and that proved costly. I thought both Stephen (Outerbridge) and Irving (Romaine) batted very well for us and Jim West had a good bowling spell in the afternoon when we had them in a bit of trouble."

Bay batsman Outerbridge echoed his skipper's sentiments regarding Bay's dropped catches.

"I thought we had set them a tough target and we felt pretty confident," said Outerbridge. "But credit to OJ and Delyone who both played very well.

"To drop those catches on a very flat wicket probably cost us in the end. Catches win matches and our bowling probably lacked a little bit of penetration.

"But the bowlers still created wicket chances and if we'd taken those chances then you never know."