The Central Counties will be played as a best-of-three this season between the last two remaining teams in the competition, Western Stars and Devonshire Recreation Club, in an effort to revive interest in the youngest of the three counties.

After the withdrawal of Young Men’s Social Club last season, the counties competition that historically had boasted arguably the strongest teams was reduced to a one-off match.

The new format for the competition was revealed when the Bermuda Cricket Board released this season’s schedule.

“The change came from talks between me and Gershon Gibbons,” said Dennis Williams, the Devonshire Recreation Club joint chairman, who along with Gibbons of Western Stars, is a club representative on the Central Counties.

“Being that we’re reduced to two teams now, in order to add some flair or excitement to the competition we thought a best-of-three would be better than having a one-off match.

“We also decided if a team is up 2-0 then the third match would be a Twenty20 match just to keep some interest in the Central Counties.”

The first match will be held at St John’s Field on June 7 with Devonshire Recreation Club hosting the second match on July 12. The third match will be back at St John’s Field on August 23.

The numbers on the Central Counties have been reduced over the last few years with the withdrawal of Police and then Young Men’s Social Club. Efforts have been made to try to persuade those two teams to return to the league.

“The committee members that were representing those two clubs are not there anymore,” Williams said.

“We actually reached out to Social Club and Police in an effort to get them to reconsider rejoining the league. Social Club, I know, were having talks over the winter about doing that, but, for whatever reason, it hasn’t materialised.

“Police are even less likely at this stage because they were hit when all the gun violence started and a lot of the policemen had to put in more time at work, as opposed to playing cricket, and they got curtailed greatly as a result of that.”

Gibbons, of Western Stars, is hoping a best-of-three will create some excitement in the competition.

“Central Counties is not as big as the Western and Eastern Counties, so we had to do something to make it more interesting. We talked about this last year and agreed that a one-off match is really not fair to the competition; that we might as well make it a best two-out-of-three. If you lose the first game, you still have a chance of winning it.”

The two former top clubs are hoping to make a push for promotion from the First Division this season.

The schedule for this year’s Eastern Counties has been confirmed, with champions St David’s playing Cleveland in the first round at Sea Breeze Oval on July 18. Bailey’s Bay await in the second round on August 16 before Flatts come into the competition for the final on August 30.

The Western Counties dates are July 5 and 12, and August 9 and 23.