Frith still to finish on a losing KO side

JEREMY FRITH did more than anyone to ensure his incredible run in the GCA Cup continued yesterday. The island all-rounder has never lost a game in the competition and his terrific spell of five for 12 set Total Cobo on their way to their third successive final victory before sharing in the biggest partnership of the day, with winning skipper Stuart Le Prevost.

The final winning margin of three wickets does not come close to telling the whole story because Wanderers were well beaten on the day.

Only an extraordinary finale that saw Cobo, who were chasing 122, go from 119 for three to 121 for seven as they took their foot off the gas, threatened to take the gloss off a fine all-round team performance.

But Mark Renouf settled any nerves by crashing the winning boundary through the covers with more than 17 overs to spare.

Earlier, it had been a good toss for Peter Vidamour to win and after he inserted Wanderers, his bowlers did him proud.

Renouf and Liam Smyth did not allow a run off the bat until the eighth over of the day and the former's first five overs were all maidens.

Rob Turville continued the good work after he replaced Renouf at the de Beauvoir end, although it was not until Gary Rich was introduced that Cobo finally took a wicket.

Spencer Noyon was the man to go as he shouldered arms to the spinner's first ball and was bowled by one that turned from outside off stump.

But it was Frith who did most of the damage to the top of the order.

In the left-arm spinner's first over, Turville took a brilliant catch diving to his right at square leg to dismiss Tim Belton for 21 and Richard Veillard went soon after, stumped by Justin Ferbrache.

Frith then had the dangerous Pierre Moody caught at mid-off by Jamie Nussbaumer and in his penultimate over he claimed the scalps of both Glen Mourant and Adrian Birkett. The latter was the top scorer for his side with a patient 27 from 70 balls, including two boundaries.

Wanderers were in big trouble at 87 for six with just nine overs remaining and things got worse before they got better.

Smyth returned after Rich had finished his good spell and the tall fast bowler removed Steve Birkett, who top-edged a pull shot, and then trapped Tony Veillard leg before with a full delivery in his final over.

Renouf also got the wicket he deserved late on, bowling the Wanderers skipper Dave Piesing.

However, Cobo were denied the satisfaction of bowling their opposition out thanks to stubborn resistance from Phil Challenger and Keith Le Cheminant.

The last-wicket pair pushed the ball around in adding a 16-run partnership at the death, runs which were valuable but it still left Wanderers well short of the 150 minimum they were looking for.

The reply began briskly with Vidamour driving Le Cheminant for a couple of fours early on, while Matt Oliver also cut one from the left-arm seamer for four.

However, Oliver was soon to be heading back to the pavilion as another Le Cheminant delivery popped on him and he could only give Adrian Birkett the simplest of catches at extra cover. The captain followed shortly afterwards as he played over the top of a full ball from Challenger and Cobo were 44 for two.

But, as they have done several times before and memorably so in this competition over the last three seasons, Frith and Le Prevost guided their side towards the winning post.

They put on 65 with Frith making 27 in the supporting role, hitting two fours from his 59 balls, while his partner made a fine half-century with nine beautifully-timed boundaries.

But it was the fall of Frith, caught behind off Steve Birkett with the score on 109, which began the shenanigans when Cobo seemed to be coasting.

Ten runs later Belton took an excellent catch close in to dismiss Rich for a duck and TJ Ozanne followed next ball, stumped attempting to pad-up, putting Steve Birkett on a hat -trick.

He did not manage to complete it in his next over but he did make it three in five balls when his son took the catch to get rid of Le Prevost for 55 and in the following over Jamie Nussbaumer toed a sweep off Piesing straight to Steve Birkett.

Four wickets had fallen for the addition of just two runs and Cobo were still two from victory when Renouf showed no nerves as he calmly faced a sighter before smashing the winning runs to the relief of his team-mates.