Bailey's Bay (Bay won the toss) ¿ –Cleveland, 258-9, drew with Bailey's Bay, 193-8.

Utterly compelling, and at the same time completely unsatisfying, Eastern Counties ended in another draw on Saturday.

This time Cleveland were the frustrated party, running out of time to take the final two Bailey's Bay wickets to give them victory in an encounter they dominated totally.

As it was, an antiquated version of the game, that has long since been dismissed in most other parts of the world as irrelevant, robbed the holders of an outright win, and left a crowd brought to the point of near ecstasy, in emotional limbo.

Maybe, in a sense, justice was served, because two weeks ago Cleveland survived against Flatts to claim a draw in a game they should have lost. It doesn't make the outcome any more palatable though, and even where 'time cricket' is still played occasionally, they have adopted the concept of the winning draw, and losing draw.

And while the record books will mark this down as just a draw, Cleveland were the victors, and any doubts that remain about their right to be called champions should be dispelled immediately. Even if they have yet to officially win the trophy.

From Damali Bell (37*) and Lavar Talbot's (54*) remarkable 83-run last wicket partnership, to Dennis Musson's impressive opening spell with the ball, where he took two wickets to reduce the challengers to 27 for two, Cleveland were just the better team.

Not that Bailey's Bay helped themselves much, they dropped five catches during the course of Cleveland's innings, and made countless mistakes in the field that added more than the 25 extras they bowled.

They will also look back on their team selection and wonder whether the commendable decision to stick with their league team wasn't actually just slightly misguided.

Corey Hill opened the bowling, and looked like he hadn't played for more than a month, which he hadn't, conceding 68 runs from his 16 overs, and along with Burton Outerbridge, who managed just seven overs, struggled to make much of an impact.

Outerbridge will best be remembered for his miserable display in the field, as will most of the Bay team, who still managed to get themselves into a winning position when they reduced Cleveland to 175 for nine, only to throw it away in 16 overs at the end when Bell and Talbot ran –riot.

Any suggestions from Bay fans that Cleveland were a guest team would be entirely disingenuous, especially as the 'victory' was born on the backs of those players who have Cleveland in their souls. And in truth, the guest players, Dion Stovell aside, did very little in comparison.

Stovell scored 38 at the top of the holders' innings, but it was his remarkable diving catch, that stopped Irving Romaine's brutal assault on Cleveland's bowlers that ended any chance Bay had of pulling off a remarkable win.

Romaine came to the crease with his side 81 for five, and requiring a minor miracle to save them from total humiliation.

The Bay veteran nearly pulled it off as well, in a 33-ball onslaught, he scored 60 runs, hitting six sixes, and took them to 158 before another attempted six was plucked out of their air less than a yard from the boundary by Stovell.