St. David's 146-6 The Eastern Counties Cup will remain another year as a part of St. David's gleaming cache of silverware following the club's successful defence against Flatts on Saturday.

A tame draw was the end result of the contest at Sea Breeze Oval, as challengers Flatts paid the price for a slow scoring rate that left them little chance of dismissing a bat-heavy Islanders line-up.

Flatts won the toss and elected to bat on a grassy, somewhat damp wicket and soon found themselves in difficulty as the pace pair of Lionel Cann and Herbie Bascome fully exploited the conditions.

Cann snapped up Gershon Gibbons and Phillip Burgess to have Flatts reeling at one for two, and when Bascome had colt Nakia Smith caught behind, the situation grew alarmingly worse at four for three.

Man-of-the-match Dwayne Leverock then came to the rescue, he and Quinn Outerbridge putting on 48 for the fourth wicket, taking the total to 52 before Outerbridge fell for 25.

Leverock then added 42 with Derek Wright (14), but few afterwards were able to hang around, with Leverock eventually the last man out after contributing 69 out of the 176 total, but needing 166 balls to do it.

Bascome emerged as the top bowler for St. David's with three for 44 from 23 overs, while Cann had two for 28 and Sammy Robinson two for 35.

Given 50 overs to chase the target, but armed with the knowledge that a draw would secure the trophy, St. David's showed little urgency in their chase.

Captain Clay Smith top scored with 36 not out, while Chris Foggo chipped in with 31 and Cann 22 from 18 balls, including three sixes.

Afterwards Flatts captain Rahji Edness slammed St. David's for failing to try and score an outright victory, while hinting at the need for a format change to the competition.

"We batted first, lost a couple of quick wickets and probably took about 10 overs too much, but they still could have gone for the runs if they're supposed to be this powerhouse team they say they are,'' said Edness, enjoying his first season as skipper.

"They had 50 overs and on a regular Sunday they would score 200 runs or more in that time. So I don't see why they didn't go after the runs today.

"But we have to do something about the Eastern Counties. Go to 60 overs each or don't play at all.'' Having none of it was counterpart Smith, who instead noted the lack of a win or loss to be as a direct result of Flatts' incompetence with the bat.

"I just think that at the beginning of the day Flatts played some negative cricket,'' said Smith. "When you're challengers you don't bat 70 overs to make 170 runs.

"They batted far too many overs and at the end of the day we played our trump card, which was Lionel Cann, to try and win the game. Once he went it was always going to be difficult to reach our target.'' The coach/captain also sounded a warning for all those who would seek to challenge the holders down the line.

"Right now we're building a dynasty. In the next 10 years we're hoping that we can dominate cricket the way Western Stars and St. George's have done in the past.

"The next 10 years you can definitely look for great things from St. David's Cricket Club.''