What a wonderful couple of days that was at Cup Match. You show up for a two-day festival that is meant to exemplify all that is great about Bermuda — and a cricket match breaks out.

In the end, the star of the show was Terryn Fray, the Somerset opening batsman, but he had so many rivals for MVP, which for the purpose of this column stands for Most Valuable Person.

We can start with Somerset Cricket Club for what looked to be a well-run event, for players and spectators alike.

Then on to both club presidents — Alfred Maybury, of Somerset, and Neil Paynter, of St George’s Cricket Club — for signing up to the Code of Conduct, which at least gives the impression that they are serious about the need to drive home the obvious to today’s digital age brand of cricketer: that, while the game has moved on with the advent of Twenty20, coloured clothing and oversized bats, it is still a noble man’s game and should be afforded a certain respect.

While I do not agree that the players were first-class over the two days, as some of my fellow commentators proclaimed in their excitable rush to announce Cup Match 2014 as a roaring success, which it was, they were a darn sight better than a year earlier when Bermuda’s cricket reputation took a serious hit.

Credit for that begins with the Code of Conduct, then extends to the clubs, coaches and, finally, the players.

The sight of every Somerset player congratulating OJ Pitcher on his hundred as if he were a brother was the high point — far removed from the poisonous atmosphere of 2013 and affirmation that decency can be found even amid the most heated of occasions.

The Bermuda Cricket Board was central to the Code being introduced for this year’s match and deserves credit for its part. It was someone’s daft decision years ago that the Board cede certain responsibilities when it came to Cup Match. That daft decision ultimately brought us 2013.

Thanks to Neil Speight and the aforementioned club presidents, we appear to have turned a corner.

Don’t get me wrong, the players were not perfect on Thursday and Friday. Bar one notable absentee, these were many of the same protagonists that contributed in whatever small way to casting an ugly stain on Bermuda cricket at home and abroad. So you could not expect there to be a 180-degree turnabout overnight.

There were still cases of excessive appealing, still shows of dissent when decisions did not go the way of the bowler and still the unpalatable sight of batsmen taking far too long to get off the field once they were given out. And still the disgusting sight of cricketers with their shirts outside of their trousers, one of them a captain.

But, that being said, there was little that should have overly exercised Roger Dill, the match referee, and that has to be accepted as serious progress.

So on to the cricket.

There were some home truths that were told over the two days. That Terryn Fray is a seriously decent batsman who deserved a break after his two previous innings in the Annual Classic ended rather unfortunately. That OJ Pitcher does indeed have the temperament to be the St George’s talisman, much as Janeiro Tucker is for Somerset. That Janeiro Tucker can catch (we already knew he could bat, so he, rather George O’Brien, chose not to show us that). That George O’Brien can bowl (how much better might he be if St George’s could knock 20 to 30 pounds off his frame). That Tre Manders is a glutton for runs. That Delray Rawlins is one for the future.

But there were a few other truths that should not be masked by Cup Match 2014 having produced a result. One is that St George’s have real leadership issues, whether they choose to believe so or not, and two, on a much wider scale, the Island’s cupboard is relatively bare of quality bowlers.

Oronde Bascome, try as he might with no fewer than 25 bowling changes over the two days, does not look captaincy material. Carrying a captain is the art of yesteryear and that St George’s have persisted with someone who splits time between England and Bermuda while contributing little beggars belief.

An aggregate of 179 from 12 innings at an average of 14.92, with a high score of 43, is bad enough; the manner and timing of the dismissals quite another.

Two of the worst shots played at Somerset came from the St George’s captain. If you could forgive the first, which is difficult, given that the match was barely an hour old and the ball from Greg Maybury so wide that it might have been called had it been left alone, there was no excusing the second.

With lunch two balls away and St George’s having lost three quick wickets, the situation required accepting your medicine and hoping the wounds would be healed after a 40-minute break to reassess. To senselessly attempt to hit a four with little or no technique and lose your wicket signalled a lack of aptitude as well as ability.

That is for St George’s to sort out, but if president Paynter really was serious in his post-match declaration that his club will definitely win the cup in 2015, a reality check is definitely in order — on all fronts.

So to the bowling, or lack thereof. Of the 28 wickets that fell, it is safe to suggest that few of the batsmen were got out. This truth was borne out in the Somerset second innings, in the nitty gritty, when the pitch was meant to be at its worst. But the champions put their heads down, took what was on offer and cantered to victory.

It was a result that was predicted, as well as the ease of it, as soon as St George’s declared their second innings closed. For it was criminally naive to believe that O’Brien could repeat the feat of the first innings. He was definitely St George’s best bowler, but he is not in the shape where he can be expected to bowl out the champions twice, without any sort of assistance.

As Rawlins matures into a top all-rounder, he may feature in a one-two knockout punch for the challengers, but in the meantime they have either to get O’Brien fitter or develop seam bowlers of a decent-enough quality to give Somerset something else to think about when the ball is new.

Somerset were a fair bit better with the ball, definitely more disciplined, but even in their case as bat began to get on top of ball, there was lunatic talk of the pitch being a batsman’s paradise.

That would ring true only if Dale Steyn, Mitchell Johnson, James Anderson and Saeed Ajmal struggled similarly to take 20 wickets on the same track against any composite Cup Match XI.

Exactly. I thought not.