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Dramatic Guernsey collapse hands tri-series win to Jersey
David Piesing
The Jersey Cricket Board won the triangular series against the Guernsey Cricket Board and the French Cricket Federation in Jersey after two stunning bowling performances by the home side at Grainville.
On the first day the GCB won the opener against the French by an impressive 144 runs. Batting first, GCB made 207 all out in exactly 50 overs with skipper Stuart Le Prevost leading the way with 58 and opener Matt Oliver making 48. In reply the French were destroyed by the GCB's 18-year old paceman, Peter Le Hegarat, who took 5 for 11 in a rapid 7-over spell. Bowling in trandem with club colleague, Blane Queripel, the pair reduced the French to 28 for 7 before recovering slightly to 63 all out. Jeremy Frith picked up the last two wickets without conceding a run.
On day two things got no better for the French. They won the toss against the JCB and elected to bat first on a seaming wicket but were skittled for 74. Seamer Tony Carlyon led the way with 3 for 6 and then JCB knocked off the runs in under 12 overs for just the loss of opener Steve Carlyon.
The final day amounted to an effective play-off between the two island sides and after winning the toss the GCB elected to bat - a decision which they were very soon to rue. With former Lancashire all-rounder Ryan Driver bowling a superb opening spell the GCB had to dig deep after the loss of both openers, Oliver and Frith, with just 14 on the board. The experienced pair of Ami Banerjee and Andy Biggins took the score to 53 before Tony Carlyon ripped through the rest of the batting line-up with a devasting spell of seam bowling in which he took 6 for 7 from 10 overs. Bowling a superb off-stump line Carlyon nipped the ball back of the seam and proved unplayable as Guernsey suffered a remarkable collapse to 73 all out. Driver picked up the last wicket to return excellent figures of 2 for 7 from 6 overs. Both bowlers were totally unplayable on a wicket which, whilst very helpful to the seamers, still required them to bowl it in the right place and the pair certainly delivered on that front.
The JCB opening pair of Peter Gough and Dave Morfee tucked into the GCB attack and put on 59 before Gough holed out to off-spinner GH Smit for 30. This initiated a mini-collapse for the home side who were suddenly 61 for 4 as Smit picked up two more wickets but Chris Jones saw the home side to victory with three successive boundaries in the 20th over.
As a preparation exercise for tournaments in 2008 it is hard to see too much benefit from this series for any of the three sides. The Jersey seamers bowled superbly but are unlikely to come across such helpful conditions too often, while their batsmen hardly got tested as a result of chasing two very low scores. Guernsey played very well against the French but will be somewhat concerned at the nature of the collapse against Jersey when it should have been possible to graft their way to what would have been a very competitive score of 130-140 even after taking into account the quality of the bowling. The French were without two or three key players and although they bowled reasonably well against Guernsey their batting and fielding in both games was well below par.
© Guernsey Cricket Board
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