'Playboys' on the hunt for trophies again

THE Optimists enjoy their status as the playboy cricketers. If you go to their base at the Collinette Hotel on a Friday night not only will you find a number of their players having a few drinks and telling stories of their exploits on and off the field, you will find a corner of the bar covered with pictures of trophy-winning teams from down the years.

But you will not find one of last year's because, surprisingly for possibly the most successful club on the island, they did not win one piece of silverware during 2004.

'Unfortunately the anticipation of bringing home trophies came from a few years ago,' said the club's weekend league captain Mark Jefferies.

'And when we didn't win anything last year, it was noticeable.'

They certainly have the players to be capable of winning everything in sight. Traditionally, their strength has been their batting line-up.

Established opener Mark Clapham will start the innings with the left-handed Andy Biggins.

Jefferies likes the idea of a left-handed and right-handed batter opening together as he sees that most bowlers locally struggle to adjust their line.

He also notes that Clapham and Biggins have batted well together in the past.

The side have already had success this year with this partnership, when the duo put on 96 against Sparsholt in the first game of the season.

This is a new role for Biggins, who has handed the responsibility of the weekend captaincy to Jefferies and the evening league to Elliot Green so that he can concentrate on captaining the island team.

Following these two in the line-up is possibly the best cricketer on the island, Ami Banerjee. The former Bengal player averaged 52.33 with the bat and 17.33 with the ball last year.

He accumulates runs at a steady pace by seemingly having the ability to get them off every delivery.

New signings Tim de Putron, Andre van Rooyen and Ian Damarell make up the rest of the middle order, with Damarell behind the stumps.

Van Rooyen has returned to Optimists after briefly joining Cobo and de Putron has signed from Rovers but is currently suffering from a long-term knee injury.

Jefferies anticipates that he will play an important role when he is available.

'He's not fit at the moment but he will be back at the end of May or early June,' said Jefferies.

'He fills a middle-order place and potentially he will fill in for Banerjee at number three when the latter isn't available due to school commitments.'

The new ball will go to van Rooyen with either Banerjee or Stephen Queripel.

Mike Kinder should come on first change. Jefferies reckons that Kinder, with his nagging line and length, will do a good job as a containment type of bowler.

The club's batting, bowling and fielding have been seriously depleted by the loss of Divan van den Heever.

He has had to leave the island while he waits for his Dutch passport application to be approved.

The rules stipulate that the South African must leave the European Union until it is approved and once it is he will return to Guernsey.

This is a serious blow to Optimists and the island team, because he was looking in good form during the winter training sessions, and impressed former England fast bowler Devon Malcolm with his pace.

Jefferies does not know when van den Heever will return and has discounted him for the season.

But the club has signed another South African, G.H. Smit.

He is a quick bowler and an aggressive batsman who will help fill the gap left by van den Heever.

Optimists sometimes fall down against lesser teams as they fail to get up mentally for the matches.

The different approach is marked when they play Jersey teams. Jefferies hopes to address this problem this year.

'I've told the boys that we've got to treat every game like we're playing Sporting Club,' said the skipper.

'Sometimes we've not put in the total effort and we've relied on individual players to take up the responsibility.'