It is to be hoped that Mother Nature has got her rains in early and we can now enjoy two bright and sunny days of Cup Match cricket at Wellington Oval without interruption. So what of the cricket? Little of that has been mentioned in this space this week — and for very good reason — but for about nine hours on each of tomorrow and Friday, 22 men will be charged with entertaining the thousands who flock to the East End of the Island.

These men will be representing their clubs, they will be representing their families, they will be representing their communities, they will be representing Bermuda.

For some, especially in the St George’s camp, the theme could very well be redemption.

Before rain ruined what was likely to be another big win for Somerset in the previous match in the east in 2013, outstanding batting by Janeiro Tucker and Tre Manders for the champions had been overshadowed by the behaviour of the home team, in particular that of Treadwell Gibbons Jr.

The left-handed early-order bat was unofficially banned by St George’s last year, but he gets another chance to show his club and the wider public, in particular, that he can handle the big stage and that he can carry himself in a manner that is reflective of the spirit in which Cup Match is meant to be played.

For Gibbons, no matter his success or failure on the field, this will be his “Redemption Day”.

Both he and St George’s have much to lose; the player because he officially begins the first of a two-year Cup Match probation and the club, which risks a public relations disaster should the gamble backfire.

However, the man previously dubbed enfante terrible appears to have made steady progress in recent times on the path to public forgiveness, highlighted by him staying clear of the madness that enveloped five Cleveland County team-mates at St David’s County Cricket Club on Saturday before last at the Eastern Counties Cup first round.

It is to be hoped that the same backers who have helped to turn him around, in the event his Cup Match is successfully uneventful, may also be driven to seek a reduction to a five-year football ban, the length of which appears disproportionate to the crime.

But redemption may not be the catchword for Gibbons alone. So, too, for Christian Burgess, Onias Bascome and Kyle Hodsoll. The first two were dropped last year, but my how did Burgess bounce back: the wicketkeeper-batsman, whose colt year was memorable most for dropping Manders before he had reached double figures, was easily the outstanding Bermuda player last year on a disastrous tour to Malaysia, which resulted in the cricket board vice-president who was standing in as coach at the last minute being summarily booted off the cricket board upon his return. You just couldn’t make it up. Only in Bermuda.

Bascome, who stunningly also found himself on that tour despite having shown little to suggest that he was a Bermuda senior player, is best remembered for being off with the fairies in 2013 when he contrived to get run out at the non-striker’s end from ... it might as well have been Penno’s Wharf. “What was he thinking?” was a recurring moan. Both can only improve, which could spell trouble for Somerset.

So on to the game. Can we expect to see new champions this year or will Somerset maintain the status quo? Drum roll.

While St George’s appear to have been strengthened with six changes from last year, Somerset still hold the upper hand man for man and, with a settled team, have to be considered firm favourites.

Last year’s win at Somerset Cricket Club was no fluke, despite George O’Brien’s fantastic eight-wicket haul in the first innings that had red-and-blue hearts fluttering on the Thursday night and for part of Friday morning.

But St George’s ultimately suffered for not having anyone to adequately spell a tiring O’Brien — cue the failures of the aforementioned Hodsoll (none for 81 from 20 overs) — with their only reliable option being a left-arm slow bowler who was making his first appearance in Cup Match.

They do not even have that alternative now, with Delray Rawlins staying in England to further his chances of joining the professional ranks.

The other spinner, Rodney Trott, the long-time vice-captain from Bailey’s Bay, threw his toys out of the pram weeks ago after he was overlooked for the vacated captaincy, thus ending a Cup Match run that dates back to the Noughties. Only in Bermuda.

So the challengers will attempt to win back the cup without a recognised spinner — and, to be fair, the “recognised” spinner was hardly recognised two years ago when Tucker and Manders raced to their centuries on virtually a steady diet of medium-paced dross.

The same should be the case this time around — the medium-paced element, that is — but on a pitch that is likely to be underprepared owing to the vast amounts of rain that have been dumped on the Island every day since the final trial was washed out on Saturday without a ball bowled.

It is every groundsman’s dream: preparing a “result wicket” with a ready-made excuse (although there is no suggestion that the venerable Cal Richardson would take the low road. Would he?).

In any case, what could make this match closer than it looks on paper is that O’Brien will take the new ball in harness with the returning Stefan Kelly, who has good memories of Cup Match in St George’s, having taken ten wickets in the 2011 match to become most valuable player.

The challengers will need him and O’Brien to fire because elsewhere their capacity to take 20 wickets, unless the pitch makes geniuses of even the ordinary, is highly questionable. Hodsoll swings it but we saw enough of him last year to know that a serious improvement is needed, while Damali Bell has it to prove.

Somerset hold most of the aces: experience, quality, what qualifies for pace on this Island and both options for spin. They also have Janeiro Tucker, the greatest run-scorer in Cup Match history, who will be reminded of his first-ball duck last year but who will also remind that his record in St George’s is superior to all others.

They are so strong that they can survive the extended absences for differing reasons of Kamau Leverock and Dion Stovell, both of whom qualify for “first name on the teamsheet” status for St George’s. There are a number of others in the Somerset camp of whom the same can be said, so that shows the scale of the task that befalls the home team.

A young team with a young coach. They require two days of good, solid cricket, which may be a stretch in an era when sustained periods of good cricket are thin on the ground, and a helpful dollop of luck.