St George’s will be looking to make a positive start to the defence of their Athene T20 Premier Division title over the weekend.

Clay Smith’s team will face Cup Match rivals Somerset at Somerset Cricket Club in their opening encounter today before hitting the road again to take on promoted St David’s in an East End derby at Lord’s tomorrow.

Coach Smith is looking forward to his team’s bid to win the competition three times on the trot but admits their task won’t be easy as their rivals also harbour title aspirations of their own.

“We are defending champions for two years so that means there’s going to be a target on our backs, everybody will be gunning for us,” Smith told The Royal Gazette. “We could not have asked for a more difficult start this weekend having Somerset first up at Somerset, especially with Cup Match just being around the corner, and on Sunday St David’s, who are our arch rivals as well.

“So it’s two very tough games to start our defence off with and in so many ways we are looking forward to it because, obviously, it’s an opportunity to three-peat.

“But there’s some tough teams out there and we can’t take anything for granted.

“We are just going to put our best foot forward this weekend and see how it goes.

“To be quite honest right now we are in Cup Match mode, so it’s very difficult to transition over to T20, especially with Cup Match just being around the corner.

“So we will see how it goes and hopefully we come out of this weekend victorious.”

St David’s will face Western Stars at Devonshire Recreation Club while Bailey’s Bay will travel to Southampton Oval to take on Willow Cuts, the remaining promoted team from last season, in today’s remaining top flight matches.

The Athene T20 First Division also kicks off today with Southampton Rangers pitted with Flatts at Southampton Oval, Cleveland County facing Somerset Bridge at White Hill Field and Warwick and Devonshire doing battle at Devonshire Recreation Club.

Meanwhile, Western Stars will lock horns with Willow Cuts at Somerset Cricket Club while Somerset will face hosts Bailey’s Bay at Sea Breeze Oval in tomorrow’s remaining Athene T20 Premier Division matches.

Athene T20 First Division also continues tomorrow with Flatts squaring off against Devonshire at Lord’s, Somerset Bridge taking on Warwick at Somerset Cricket Club and Southampton Rangers and Cleveland County bumping heads at Sea Breeze Oval.

Rangers and Cleveland were both relegated to the second tier of the competition last season.