Champions left feeling beaten and aggrieved

ROVERS were desperately frustrated by the weather as they began the defence of the Cable & Wireless GCA Championship with a defeat on Saturday. A delay of almost 90 minutes early on in the Wanderers innings had everyone reaching for the rule book to see what sort of match they could constitute.

With 44 overs having been completed by 5.30pm the match was reduced to 35 overs per side with the new Wanderers score being calculated by adding together the appropriate number of their highest scoring overs.

In essence, that meant that five maidens and four overs where just one run was scored were lost. So from having scored 161 for eight in 44 overs, Wanderers ended up setting Rovers a victory target of 158 from just 35 overs.

No wonder the team batting second felt slightly aggrieved.

But a required run-rate of just over 4.5 was still obtainable and Richard Headington and Jon Baker gave their side a decent start.

The former island captain looked in good nick with one drive for four extremely well-timed, while his left-handed colleague went after anything that he thought was there to hit.

They put on 37 for the first wicket before an excellent diving catch from Tim Belton in the gully dismissed Headington in the eighth over.

From that point Rovers, missing both Richard Hamilton and Tim de Putron from the top of their order, fell further and further behind the rate.

Keith Le Cheminant and Phil Challenger both bowled tidily with the latter overcoming early difficulty with the damp ground by cutting his run-up to good effect.

Then Richard Veillard, standing in as Wanderers captain for the injured Dave Piesing, turned to his veteran spin combination of Steve Birkett and Ted Enevoldsen to close out the game.

It was the off-spinner, in his first over, who made the next break through as Micky Fooks stumped Baker for 21.

Left-armer Birkett then got in on the act as Aaron Scoones, who finished as Rovers' top scorer with 23, gave a catch to Belton at deep mid-off.

Wickets tumbled at regular intervals for the remainder of the innings with batsmen getting starts before succumbing as they attempted to make the required acceleration. They finished on 126 for seven.

Earlier, three main contributions were the foundation of Wanderers' 161 for eight.

Opener Tim Duke made 29 from 45 balls including three boundaries while skipper Veillard weighed in with 38 even though he reported that his wrist still feels slightly weak after his recent recovery from a broken thumb.

Both batsmen fell to Scoones, the pick of the Rovers bowlers, finishing with two for 28 from his 12 overs of off spin.

Mark Renouf also looked dangerous early on, getting movement away from the right-handers, but he was not helped by the rain during his initial spell.

Spencer Noyon, fresh from his evening league heroics against Optimists, emerged as Wanderers' top scorer with 45.

Although far from fluent - he took 25 balls to get off the mark - the all-rounder made the most of an early lifeline and struck six fours in his 73-ball stay at the crease.

The weekend's other scheduled GCA Championship game - Optimists v. Total Cobo - and Friday's big Barclays Evening League clash between St Pierre and Rovers, both fell foul of the miserable weather.