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Opening day wins for Rovers, Cobo and Salemites
David Piesing
The Carey Olsen GCA Championship season got under way on Saturday with wins for Air Search Rovers and Total Cobo over Elizabeth College and PKF Wanderers respectively.
At College Field, Rovers scored a maximum 40 points with a 7-wicket win over the College. College batted first and scored a potentially awkward-to-chase 207 all out inside 42 overs. Opener Richard Angliss top-scored with 59 while Tom Kirk made 33 and Jonny Warr hit 20. Off-spinner Aaron Scoones took three wickets for Rovers. In reply, Rovers lost Quintin Hubbard early, but Tim Duke and Richard Headington took the score into the eighties before Headington retired hurt with a troublesome knee. This brought in South African Ryan Bishop who took the College attack apart to make the first Championship ton of the season, ending with 101 while Duke scored 58. Rovers got home by 7 wickets with around 7 overs to spare.
In the other game at KGV, Cobo beat Wanderers by 65 runs. After winning the toss Cobo elected to bat first and got off to a useful and brisk start from openers Matt Oliver and TJ Ozanne before Ozanne was caught at gully off Sher Khanagha. Left-armer Keith Le Cheminant (2 for 23 from 9 overs) then grabbed the prize wickets of Jeremy Frith, who was caught and bowled, and Oliver who was caught behind for 34. Skipper Stuart Le Prevost somehow survived an easy chance off Phil Challenger's first delivery and Wanderers would have expected to pay heavily. but Challenger got his man soon afterwards when Le Prevost edged to slip. At the halfway drinks break Wanderers would have been very happy at having Cobo's top 4 back in the hutch and only conceding around 4 runs per over. The game then started to change as young Ben Ferbrache joined the experienced Gary Rich. Ferbrache was positive from the word go and made a very important 37 from 41 balls. Rich (36) kept one end going and accumulated ones and twos and Cobo looked like making a modest score of around 160 before Mark Renouf game the score a huge boost by smashing 26 off just 14 balls in the final few overs. On a slightly two-paced wicket 190 looked a useful score and Wanderers would need to bat well to make that target.
In reply, opener Matt Thornton was soon beaten for pace by Blane Queripel before Wanderers' chances were blown by the loss of three key wickets. Skipper Richard Veillard, Sher Khanagha and Ross Kneller were all dismissed with 64 runs on the board and their remaining hopes lay with opener Spencer Noyon and all-rounder Pierre Moody. Noyon went soon after the drinks break for a hard-fought 27 and although Moody chipped in with 25 the lower order was well-contained by the spin pair of Rich and Frith. Wanderers were left only to battle for extra batting points and were eventually all out for 125. Queripel ended with 3 for 20 and Renouf completed a good all-round performance with 3 for 29, while Frith took 2 for 23 in his 9 overs. Equally impressive was young seamer Kris Moherndl who conceded just 21 runs from his 9 overs with a remodelled run-up after a week at the ECC Academy in La Manga.
In Division 2, Salemites opened their season with a very comfortable 6-wicket win over Elizabeth College 2nd XI on the mat at the Memorial Field. The students were in deep trouble at 17 for 6 as veteran slow left-armer Ralph Anthony wreaked havoc. At one stage he had the remarkable figures of 6 wickets for 3 runs and finished with 6 for 17. Adam Robin hit a half-century for the College as they recovered somewhat to 101 all out. In reply, Paul Le Ray top-scored with 25 as Salemites got home with 10 overs to spare. Young spinners Ben McVey and Max Ellis bowled well for the College but they were left with far too much to do by the low first innings total posted by their batsmen.
© Guernsey Cricket Board
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