Despite two draws in the previous rounds, Eastern Counties Association president Harold Millett is confident that a big crowd will turn out to watch tomorrow's final at Sea Breeze Oval between cup holders St. David's and Flatts.

He ruled out any possibility of fans staying away in protest as a result of the first and second round matches ending in draws.

Millett's advice to fans who are concerned about the competition losing some of its appeal is simple: "Come on down, I'm certain St. David's will not want to see a third game end without a result.'' But will he be able to convince many who laboured through that first round game between St. David's and Bailey's Bay, a game that saw the champions occupy the wicket until 5.17p.m. and leave Bay the impossible task of scoring 261 to win off just 21 overs? The second-round tie against Cleveland was more exciting, though it ultimately ended unsatisfactorily after St. David's batsmen Clay Smith and Sammy Robinson accepted the offer of bad light from the umpires. Cleveland scored a respectable 208 and St. David's replied with 204-7 during an innings that was often painstakingly slow.

Millett, however, feels that the Eastern Counties' strong tradition would bring out the fans once again, as it has done over the years.

"We've always had a strong support base as far as the fans are concerned, but we, too, would love to see a result. Our association's aim is to always hope that the teams would produce the sort of cricket that the competition has become renowned for,'' said Millett.

"We always ask the clubs to be as positive as ever -- we stress that from the outset. But once play starts there is nothing that we can do. Everything is left to the teams to make a positive game out of it.'' He felt that fans should not judge things from the first two matches, pointing out that the last game came within an over of producing a result.

St. David's, he felt, would endeavour to avoid retaining the trophy on the back of three draws, setting the scene for what could be a very interesting final.

"I haven't talked to the captain but I believe St. David's will want to go all out to record an outright victory while Flatts, I'm quite certain, will be aiming to go out there and play nothing but positive cricket in order to win the trophy,'' said Millett.

"It's the captains who must go out and say `let's play positive cricket', not our association. The game has to be played on the field. Some things we have control of and some things we don't.

"I really believe that St. David's will be striving extra hard to win this one: after two draws they must be saying `gosh, we haven't won a single game so far, we have to win this one.' So everything is in the hands of the captains to do what they can to produce a winner.'' Even though the other two counties play limited overs and produce results in each match, it is the long running Eastern Counties that generates the most interest.

With Flatts having a good season in the First Division -- they finished in the top two places in both the Open and Overs Leagues -- the stage is set for an exciting final.