The Eastern Counties Cricket Association is looking forward to a successful return of its series after a first interruption in 2020 in 117 years of competition.

Covid guidelines will mean a reduction in the crowd size for the first-round match at Sea Breeze Oval tomorrow between St David’s and Flatts, with tickets being sold online in the lead-up to the game.

“There are still some tickets left but there has been a good response so far,” said Steven Douglas, the Eastern Counties president.

“Bear in mind the guidelines, where everybody in a SafeKey event has to be either vaccinated or have taken a swab test and tested negative within a 72-hour period.

“Keep the government guidelines on safety in mind the whole time because we don’t want to do anything that will mess up the rest of the summer for everybody else.”

The Eastern Counties is one of the most popular sporting events of the summer and the crowd size at Bailey’s Bay field will be a test for the ECCA and the host club with Cup Match, another big event, just two weeks away.

“If there are any queries you can e-mail the Eastern Counties at ecca1904@gmail.com and we will do our best to answer your queries,” Douglas said.

”We had the swab test for the players last night and are looking for the negative results to come back for that. We are ticking the boxes as we go along. We are looking for a good 2021 series, one that will be different from ever before.

“Outside of the traditional radio broadcast, we will be streaming on the Digicel PlayGo app and their TV station, channel 20.”

The series in 2019 produced three draws as champions St David’s retained their title.

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“That was the first time we have had three draws in 15 years,” Douglas said. “Since then we have had at least one win [in the series]; sometimes two wins, sometimes three.

“The committee has worked very hard to put this [series] on, I want to thank my members who have put a lot of hours in to put this together.

“Also the clubs for all they do because it is the clubs that make it the success that it is.”

Douglas emphasised in a release yesterday that children under the age of 2 can attended only in the presence of a parent who presents a SafeKey, while all other children must show proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test within 72 hours.

St David’s and Flatts were due to name their teams last night, with Bermuda all-rounder Kamau Leverock, who is based in England, back on the island and expected to be included in the Flatts team.