A talented and professional Jersey team has won the triangular series against Guernsey and France hosted by Jersey on the weekend.

The local's Tony Carlyon  bowled a devastating spell of seam bowling in the deciding match on Sunday against Guernsey which he took the amazing figures of 6 for 7 from 10 overs and saw Guernsey suffer a remarkable collapse to be all out for 73 and hand over the series to their island neighbour.

On Friday the French took on Guernsey in the first of the three matches and bowling first were pleased to reduce their opposition to 207 all out after exactly 50 overs despite the French fielding being extremely poor with six easy catches put down and the bowling  flawed by too many short and wide deliveries. 18 year old Ramiz Ihsan took 3 for 33, Sulanga Hewawalandanage 2 for 23 and Ramesh Sithambaranathan 2 for 44.

The French innings commenced in the worst possible fashion when their opening batsman was bowled by an inswinger off the first ball. What followed was a disappointing middle-order batting collapse that left the French reeling at 7 for only 23. Only Sankara Wickremasinghe (19) and 16 year old Amila Konthasinghe Waduge could manage double figures leaving France all out for 63.

Saturday's match against Jersey saw France bite the bullet and elect to bat first on a seaming wicket in an attempt to find some batting ability on grass and regain some pride. The innings commenced slowly but was pleasing as two U'19 players Jonathon Houghton (13) and Michael Selig (12) saw off the first ten overs of the new ball. Unfortunately after the first fall of wicket at 27 there was the common middle-order batting collapse with batsmen #'s 4,5,6 and 7 all making ducks! Again 16 year old Amila Konthasinghe Waduge tried to revive the innings by scoring 11 not out but it was to no avail as the French continued their poor batting ways and were all out for 74. In the only four matches of the senior calendar the EDF has not managed to score a team total higher than 100 runs? It is no coincidence that all four matches have been played on turf wickets.

Several dropped catches and again very poor bowling for the conditions with too many short and wide deliveries saw the Jersey team notch up the tiny target in under 12 overs for the loss of only 1 wicket which Sulanga Hewawalandanage managed to snare.

The French team were missing eight of the originally selected players for this series and despite having a team of mostly under 23 year olds, it was a real disappointment to see that what seniors were in the side could not step up and perform. Unfortunately the triseries did not offer much benefit to the island nations however for the EDF it has sounded the warning sirens by illustrating how important it is for the French players to play every match on grass if France is to keep up with rapid progression and improvement of the top teams in Europe Division 2.

How this problem can be resolved is complicated but it is clear that a commission and strategies need to be put in place now for future development of the game on grass surfaces in France, in particular the Paris area, as travel to the few existing grass pitches in France and to nearby nations is costly and unsustainable. Saumur has the nearest grass cricket pitch to Paris and is a 3.5 hour drive from the capital.

Hopefully the youngsters who played in this triseries gained valuable lessons about playing on grass and against quality opposition so that they can transfer this experience into success when representing France in the future at their own age group or again at the senior level.

Many thanks to Jersey for their first class hosting and use of excellent facilities, and also to the Jersey and Guernsey Cricket Boards for their generous assistance in making the triseries possible.