Two down, two to go.

Such is the modus operandi at St. David's as they look to build on the double success this season of capturing the Camel Cup, and most recently being crowned Premier League champions.

Now looming is one more successful defence of the Eastern Counties Cup, and consequent to that, a possible showdown against Western Stars in the Champion of Champions.

Long stigmatised in the role as a club that strictly concerned themselves with the County, this season has seen the Islanders lend themselves to the rest of the country, and in what spectacular fashion.

And while much credit is due to Clay Smith, who brought a new focus to the club once he was pried away from St. George's three years ago to take over the role of player/coach, vice-captain Lionel Cann attributed a great deal of praise to youth coach George Cannonier for his work in preparing a bevy of youngsters for the leap to senior cricket.

"It's a good feeling, the boys have worked hard for it," said Cann, savouring his first championship, and the first for the club since the merger of the Somers Isles Cricket League and the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control. "Clay came over with a three-year programme to win the league, whereas before that St. David's were primarily focused on the Eastern Counties.

"He implemented a new focus to win the league championship, and that combined with all the hard work put in by George Cannonier with the youngsters, which allowed them to mature at the right time, put us over the top. We've had the youngsters come through and blend perfectly with the arrivals of Clay and Glenn, and later Dean, giving us four or five top senior players in the Island along with the best youngsters."

The table was indeed set early on, when St. David's dispatched the challenges of Southampton and defending champs Western Stars in winning the Camel Cup.

Fortified in confidence, the east enders progressed from strength to strength, going unbeaten throughout the league campaign, and seeing rumoured challenges from the likes of Stars, Southampton, Bailey's Bay and St. George's fall by the wayside.

"We knew that we had a strong team going into the season, but Stars hadn't been beaten for a season and a half, so when we played Stars it made us believe," said Cann. "It took a great team effort, chasing a total of 270-odd, for us to eclipse that and that was a big morale-booster. That's when we really believed that, 'Hey, we are the best team'.

"It hasn't been easy. But you really just have four or five competitive teams on any given day - us, St. George's, Stars, Rangers and Bay - which can beat each other. But if you look at the other teams we can have a not-so-good day and still come out on top.

"We lost Clay, O.J. and Dale, our premier bowler, to ICC duty on the way to the league title and during their absence we played Bay, St. George's and Stars, all the top teams, we knew that we needed to win at least two out of the three, and we won them all."

Indeed it has not been all 'peaches and cream' for the new champions, with an abundance of talent precipitating fierce challenges for spots, which had the potential of creating factions. Yet, St. David's remained devout in their quest for supremacy, leaving egos and individual agendas at the door to the benefit of the whole.

"If you look around, we have all stars on our team, all top players, from the youngsters on through, and each with different personalities," said Cann. "All of our players have a competitive edge, every single player in our team expects to do well all the time and gets upset when they or a team-mate don't. We all look to say something to pick ourselves or a team-mate up so that we all could succeed, there was no one man team.

"Everybody chipped in when it was needed, particularly against the top teams, and it's really been magnificent the way the season has gone."

Has a dynasty been built?

According to Cann it has, and he, for one, is looking for much more silverware to pass through the hallowed gates of Lord's.

"Definitely we're looking at a dynasty, and actually the dynasty was actually set before this year. With Chris, O.J., Landro, players that have already represented Bermuda at international level, they've been coming and coming, scoring runs the last two, three years. Now, at 17 and 18, they're matured and will only get better with age. Then there's Delyone, who's arrived this year, as well as Fiqre (Crockwell) and George O'Brien, both of whom will be vying for places next year.

"So, you're looking at us having the top youngsters in Bermuda, and with Clay having at least another four years in him, and Glenn with five or six good years, and if things are managed right at the club, we should remain on top for many years to come.

"I have to give thanks to management, who have worked hard, as well as to our sponsors CD&P, who have contributed greatly to our being able to achieve greatness."