Bailey's Bay batsman Stephen Outerbridge is confident his men have what it takes to close the gap on the top sides this season, and even go as far as lifting the Premier Division 50-overs league title.

The side had a relatively quiet off season compared to most in the league, regarding new signings, although they regained the services of a few players who had previously left for other clubs.

Their absence had caused the side to fall short of the title last year.

Bermuda international spinner Rodney Trott left to ply his trade at Young Men's Social Club but David Lovell Jr., Merkell Smith, Dennis Pilgrim and Jahmiko Marshall have returned to add much needed depth to the squad.

With the BELCO Cup beginning the season next week, Bay locks horns with champions Southampton Rangers. And Outerbridge is pleased with his players' preparation, although he admits the opening cup match won't be the main priority for the club this year.

"We are playing practice games now right up until our BELCO Cup match to get some practice before we play next weekend," said Outerbridge. "We will look at our games and analyse them and address certain areas that need to be fixed so that we go into BELCO ready to play.

"Eastern Counties is the end all, be all for Bailey's Bay. That's tradition and nothing locally comes close to that.

"But with that being said, you always want to be consistent and that means winning the league, BELCO and Eastern Counties.

"I don't know how long it has been since we won it, even the Camel Cup. It has been some years and we will want to address that.

"We gained Damon Edwards although we lost Rodney and he has played in our practice game and bowled well. We lost Picnic (Trott), who is one of the premier bowlers here, but we have enough talent to make do.

"The addition of our returning players strengthens our lower order as well as our bowling options, so we will be ok."

While Bay have improved in leaps and bounds in recent years, the side have fallen on hard times in the trophy cabinet area.

They placed third in the league last term and could well have the necessary tools to make a sustained run at the title this time around.

With St. David's and Southampton Rangers going tit for tat for title honours, Outerbridge believes his club are close to regaining their formidable status and are not far away from battling among the two leading sides.

"It's a matter of time before we get back to winning things. We are trying to do things right and have a professional approach to the game and play it how it is supposed to be played.

"The pressure of playing for Bay will always be there, you play for Bay you play for the porch, which if you are from Bay you know what that means. Those are our most loyal fans, that are there every game so you look to make them proud.

"Then you have those who are from the area who are die hard fans. We have bred a lot of quality cricketers in the years we have been around so there will always be pressure to succeed.

"This is my club and all of the players at the club feel the same. So we will look to make everyone proud."