Individual brilliance and great team commitment

TRIM MORGAN has hardly been out of the headlines all year. Much of the time, especially in recent weeks, he would have rather not been in them.

But no matter what some people think of his character - and I find him a very likeable bloke - the man is sheer class with a football at his feet.

Without meaning to sound disrespectful to Ray Blondel and his Vale Rec players, the green-and-yellows would not be the current Priaulx League champions if Morgan had not been part of their 2002-3 squad.

His guile and skill gave Vale the edge they needed in what was an extraordinary league season and he was always a pleasure to watch, fully deserving of his two player-of-the-year accolades.

But my highlight of the year was one particular piece of Morgan magic.

It came on Tuesday 25 February when Sylvans, whom he now coaches, visited the Corbet Field.

The then champions were in pursuit of a record-breaking 10th title, although at that time no fewer than four teams had championship ambitions.

Vale were one of those four but that night they were missing nine first-choice players while the westerners boasted a starting line-up that included 10 Guernsey players.

At half-time it became 11 island stars as Paul Nobes made his return from injury.

Unsurprisingly, therefore, Sylvans had most of the game but Blondel had prepared his side for that eventually and had installed a terrific, dogged determination in them to make it as hard as possible for the red-and-whites to score.

Vale did their job superbly and although Sylvans created several chances, they could not take any of them.

Instead, the one goal of the evening, which came after 55 minutes, belonged to the home side with Morgan playing the crucial role even though he only touched the ball once in the move.

With Vale under almost constant pressure, they finally got the chance to break and Dave Woodhead released the playmaker into their opponents' half with a delightfully-weighted pass.

My initial thought was that, as he was on his own with a defender closing in, he might go for an ambitious chip over Ian Drillot from about 40 yards - if anyone could do it, Morgan could.

But he simply let the ball run and just offered the occasional feint with his cultured left foot, as if to say 'bet you can't guess what I am going to do next'.

He let the defender get right on his shoulder before delivering the deftest of blind passes 90 degrees to his right.

How he knew exactly where the on-rushing Tony Manning would be is still a mystery to me, but he found his teammate with astonishing pinpoint accuracy.

And I cannot take anything away from Manning either, because his chipped finish over the keeper was sublime, but it was the assist that was the outstanding and pivotal moment of the season for me.

I have often wondered why I chose to pay a couple of quid to go and watch local football on a bitterly cold winter's night. But looking back on that day in February I would gladly shell out five times that amount to see such a special and defining moment again.

From a cold night at the Corbet Field, I move on to the hottest day of the year and the KGV.

A year earlier, Guernsey had won the cricket inter-insular for the first time in 11 attempts by a comfortable margin at Grainville and were favourites to do so again.

Things did seem to conspire against the Sarnians that Saturday afternoon - they were well-documented at the time and I was not a popular figure in Jersey because of it when I went over the following weekend with Cobo - but their determination to succeed was simply exceptional.

All of the team, including the management, deserve a huge amount of credit for their efforts that day, but it was particularly special for one of them.

Justin Ferbrache has long considered himself to be jinxed when it comes to winning silverware.

His spells at Salemites and Rovers were virtually fruitless - the Evening League knockout apart - and after joining Cobo he had to wait three seasons until he gained his first winner's medal for them.

But winning the inter-insular was Ferbrache's major aspiration.

He had made his debut in 1997, the first time cricket's showpiece occasion was held at the KGV. In all honesty, Guernsey should have won that day but they ended up eight runs short.

For the next two seasons he was not selected to play against Jersey but then Peter Vidamour became Island manager and put his faith in Ferbrache for both the 2000 and 2001 matches. Still a victory was not forthcoming.

The big kick in the teeth for the wicket-keeper was when the management opted for Ian Damarell in 2002 and Guernsey won - 'typical' was Ferbrache's reaction.

This year was to be his last chance of tasting inter-insular glory before his family emigrated to New Zealand in November and Shakespeare could not have written a better script.

After an already long day in the sweltering heat, Guernsey needed 43 runs to win when Ferbrache, coming in at eight wickets down, made his way to the crease.

He had not enjoyed a great season with the bat but he knew what was needed - just stay their with Pierre Moody and the runs will come, time was not really an issue.

They did their jobs perfectly with Moody in the lead role and Ferbrache as the support act.

There was a marked contrast between the pair when the Pessimists all-rounder hit the winning boundary. Moody was shattered, his unbeaten 41 having drained every ounce of his energy in the searing sun, while Ferbrache was understandably jubilant and looked as if he could have run a marathon simply on adrenaline alone. However, both were heroes.

Captain Andy Biggins summed it up superbly when he said after the match: 'Pierre and Justin were mature in their batting - something I never thought I would say about Justin.'

I did not think it was possible, but the smile that is permanently etched on Ferby's face actually grew bigger that day. Guernsey cricket will miss him.