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Cobo win GCA Cup in exciting weekend finale
David Piesing
Total Cobo won the Carey Olsen GCA Cup to complete a domestic league/cup double with a tight 3-wicket victory over holders PKF Wanderers at KGV. Fittingly, it was Jeremy Frith who saw his side home with a well-placed century as he has never lost a match in this tournament in the past 7 years either with Cobo or with his previous club, Optimists.
Wanderers' skipper won the toss and elected to bat on a cracked wicket which was bare of any grass. Neither skipper was sure that they would have read the wicket correctly and Veillard's view was that the wicket was unlikely to get any better later on.
Cobo got off to a great start as opening bowler Blane Queripel bowled Ross Kneller with his second ball, but Sher Khanagha took the attack to the young Cobo pace bowlers with an aggressive 50. Veillard (44) and Moody (56) then put on a fine century stand and played Cobo's spin twins of Frith and Gary Rich very well, arguably as well as anybody all season, to leave them wicketless in their 10-over spells. With the tail wagging well, Wanderers posted a highly competitive 238 for 8 in their 50 overs.
Wanderers also struck in their first over as Matt Oliver was run out by a smart piece of fielding by Matt Thornton but as Frith settled in Peter Vidamour rode his luck with three inside edges finding the boundary. Vidamour finally fell for 32, superbly caught behind by Andrew Boyce off Moody, and the turning point came shortly afterwards when Frith survived a huge appeal for a catch behind when in his 20s. Frith said afterwards that he thought he had been bowled after he had played down the wrong line and the ball may well have clipped the off stump without dislodging the bails. Kris Moherndl batted well in a brief cameo before he was bowled by Khanagha the very ball after he had also been bowled by the same bowler off a no-ball ! Skipper Stuart Le Prevost then missed a long hop from Ben Driver to be bowled and this brought Ben Ferbrache to partner Frith. The two batted sensibly and accumulated ones and twos with good shot placement. Crucially they never let the asking rate get above 8 an over even though Wanderers managed to restrict the boundaries. Ferbrache looked lucky to survive a run-out chance and although he fell shortly afterwards to Dave Piesing's leg-spin, TJ Ozanne joined Frith with Cobo still needing just under 7 an over. Frith was then run out for 101 and in the next over Ozanne remarkably mis-hit a six over long-on which carried the boundary despite looking as if it would drop short and Cobo were nearly home, needing just 2 off the last over with 7 wickets down. After a dot ball Gary Rich squirted Moody over point for two runs to complete the victory in an excellent game.
Cobo ended the weekend season with just one defeat in the CI semi-finals against Mavericks, but despite having a very strong side and winning so many games they under-fired with the bat on several occasions and the margin of victory in many of their games was not as large as the tables and cup results may suggest. Wanderers proved (like last year) that if they could field such a strong side on a more regular basis then they could and maybe should be title challengers instead of finishing bottom of the league.
© Guernsey Cricket Board
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