Champions open with win

SYLVANS came out of their first Premier One fixture with much credit last night despite suffering a seven-wicket defeat. Champions DHS St Pierre looked rusty as they claimed a comfortable although not resounding victory over the new boys, who certainly look capable of securing a couple of wins before the season is out.

Sylvans have quite a lot to learn about top-flight evening league cricket - their approach to a 15-over game definitely needs to be more urgent for one thing - but they know that and they were rightly pleased with the way they started their campaign.

After captain Pete Inniss had won the toss at the KGV and had chosen to bat, Paul Wickham and Richard Gallienne gave their side a solid start, which helped to settle the nerves.

They were assisted by several pieces of shoddy fielding from Saints, who failed to back up some tidy bowling as they put down three or four chances and were generally sloppy.

Amazingly, though, the first wicket, that of Gallienne for 15, fell thanks to a fine parrying stop from Karl Ogier in the covers which resulted in a simple run out.

Wickham was second to go, yorked by Andy Burkhardt in the 12th over and a comical misunderstanding two balls later saw Bernard Brummage departing.

Andre Austin's useful contribution of 20 pushed the Sylvans score up to 71 from their allotted overs but a run-rate of less than five was never going to trouble St Pierre.

The early dismissal of Carl Le Tissier with Austin clutching a skyer at mid-off ensured that the champions would not reach their target in double quick time.

Ivan Guille, who produced a good spell, was to add the wicket of Vince Kenny to his figures as Andy McCarthy took an excellent one-handed catch behind the stumps.

But Glenn Milnes and Jarrod Avery applied themselves to the task sensibly in a partnership of 34, which took their side to the brink of victory before the latter holed out to Dave Gilman at deep mid-wicket.

Derek Howlett joined the New Zealander to ease Saints home with eight balls to spare.