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Guernsey win Over-40s inter-insular by 9 runs
David Piesing
The Over-40s inter-insular has produced some dramatic finishes over the past few seasons and the 2006 fixture at Grainville between old adversaries threatened to follow suit before Guernsey finally found their catching hands to secure a nine-run victory.
Guernsey skipper Peter Vidamour won the toss and grabbed the opportunity to bat first in a match reduced to 45 overs per side. His side contained four debutants in Mark Clapham, Tim de Putron, Tim Belton and Mark Culverwell, while Jersey’s side also contained four debutants including arguably Jersey’s best batsman, Steve Carlyon.
Opener Carl Le Tissier immediately exploited the initial fielding restrictions by tucking into the bowling of Mark Saralis to the extent that Saralis was withdrawn from the attack after just two overs. Replacement Steve Carlyon immediately got the desired result, clean bowling Le Tissier for a brisk 18. Fellow opener Clapham was then joined by Belton and the pair put together a very useful stand before Clapham, having made 31, was well caught by Carlyon at deep square leg off Jenner, unable to resist trying to hit his former Optimists’ team-mate into the tennis courts.
Vidamour soon fell to Nick Jewell, trying to force the pace, to be replaced by Tim de Putron. After an initial struggle to judge the bounce of Jenner’s off-breaks, de Putron found his higher gear before he holed out off Carlyon for 35. Meanwhile, man-of-the-match Belton had played some glorious cover drives and trademark pull-shots to reach a fine half-century before he fell to the slower bowling of Phil Evans for 67. Evans and Jenner had taken the pace off the ball and successfully slowed down the Guernsey run rate, leaving Guernsey looking at a likely final score of around 220 with five overs remaining.
However, the last five overs of the innings provided a huge boost to the Guernsey score. Richard Headington had just made a very useful 23 at a run a ball before he was bowled by Carlyon, but this brought together Gary Rich and Andy Burkhardt who proceeded to smash Carlyon and Evans to all parts. Rich made an unbeaten 28 from 17 balls, including two large sixes, while Burkhardt made 16 not out from just 7 balls. Carlyon’s last over went for 21 to ruin his figures, while a total of 61 runs were added off the last four overs to post an extremely useful final score of 252 in 45 overs.
In reply, Mark Saralis soon chipped Mark Renouf to be easily caught by Clapham at mid-on, but this merely brought together two players, Carlyon and Jenner, who have been thorns in Guernsey’s side for many years and who will no doubt continue to do so for many years ahead in the Over-40s. The pair took the score to 149 without further loss, helped by numerous dropped catches, but the asking rate had by then increased to more than 7 an over. Carlyon was finally bowled by Steve Birkett for 72, and when Jenner was run out shortly afterwards for 65, the match had swung Guernsey’s way with new batsmen needing to score quickly right from the start.
Richard Parker was sent in early to provide some long handle and he quickly holed out off Rich to long-on where Mark Renouf ended Guernsey’s worrying run of dropped catches. The dangerous Dave Gorman then edged Burkhardt to short third-man and Dave Parry hit Burkhardt straight to Le Tissier at long-on. Dave Buxton seemed rather unlucky to be given run out and Evans became Burkhardt’s third victim when he was stumped by Headington. With the game starting to look secure for Guernsey, Jon Giles briefly threatened to take it to the wire with a rapid 19, mostly off one over from Renouf, but Mark Culverwell, struggling with an ankle injury, did enough to thwart Giles and Jewell in the last over to seal the victory and prevent a repeat of Jersey’s dramatic last-ball victory in 2005.
© Guernsey Cricket Board
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