St David’s have been looking at the form of league champions Bailey’s Bay with keen interest this season, including the team’s latest loss at home to St George’s last weekend.But coach Wendell Smith has been around the game long enough to know that come Saturday, Bailey’s Bay will play like true champions in the most anticipated Eastern Counties clash.“It’s the Eastern Counties and a match of mammoth significance to them and to us,” said Smith. ‘It’s no secret this is the game we’ve been waiting for, at home and against Bailey’s Bay.“I would expect a huge crowd, besides Cup Match I would anticipate this will be the biggest crowd of the season. After Cup Match this is the match that people look forward to.”St David’s will select their team today and could include three players from outside their league team, home grown pair Lionel Cann of Warwick and Chris Douglas of Cleveland and St George’s captain Oronde Bascome who has played in the Counties before.“We didn’t actually go and extend invitations to ‘outside’ players, we left it to them to show an interest to us,” Smith revealed. “The one who was around last week was Oronde who trained three nights.”St David’s are the unbeaten leaders of the Premier Division and could virtually wrap up the league title with victory over Cleveland on Sunday.But it is the Eastern Counties title that St David’s covet the most and on home soil have a good chance to upset the champions. Last year they lost to Bailey’s Bay five times in all competitions, including by seven wickets in the Eastern Counties at Sea Breeze Oval.But things could be different this time, with Bay set to be without Cup Match century maker Tre Manders who is in the Caribbean representing the Americas Under 19s.“Our league team is doing much better this season than we did last but we’re still yet to win matches convincingly and that has been a bit of a disappointment to me in that we knock teams down regularly between 100 and 180, but I would like to be winning by seven or eight wickets,” said Smith.“We’ve been losing five, six or seven wickets in making 150. We knocked Rangers down for 114 but lost five wickets in getting it.“The key to our team has been our bowling and our fielding. We have George (O’Brien), Justin (Pitcher) and Rudell (Pitcher), a three-prong seam attack, and they are backed up by three spinners, Delyone (Borden), Sammy (Robinson) and Del (Hollis) and OJ (Pitcher) as a medium pacer. I actually have seven decent bowlers.”Smith believes it will be an important toss to win. He expects Bay to bat second if they win the toss, and says St. David’s will do the same, preferring to come from behind where they can better control the match.“The key is going to be the toss, last year Bailey’s Bay won every toss and every game they fielded (first),” said Smith. “Last year we really didn’t turn up for the Counties, we were 70 for 7 and didn’t give them much of a match.”St. David’s were in deep trouble at 86-6 before a ninth wicket stand of 74 between brothers Loren Marshall (31) and Rudell Pitcher (49) enabled them to reach 164. But a different year gives St. David’s new hope.“My main concern is the toss and the weather,” said Smith. “If we win the toss we’re going to send them in, it’s no secret.” Oronde Bascome