Club Guernsey make it a memorable week

CLUB Guernsey were out in force yesterday. No longer is the island squad just a collection of individuals, brought together from their clubs once in a while for the odd game of representative cricket.

This group is a team and they showed the MCC what it means to wear the three green lions nowadays.

The camaraderie, kinship and, above all, the desire to win for one another is what earned them this fine victory over decent opposition.

The performance was far from perfect and there were errors made but they were made as a unit, there was no finger pointing and they certainly didn't dwell on them.

'Everyone is getting on well and everyone is taking their chance to contribute,' said captain Andy Biggins.

'There are no individuals here. Even the supposed stars want to do there bit for everyone else. It is all for Team Guernsey.

'We have built a great atmosphere out there, there is a very good mixture of characters who can lift spirits whenever required.

'We have been together all week and when the chips are down everyone pulls together and, typically, we pull through.'

On an individual level, it was good to see Biggins once again be strong in his decision making for the good of the team.

After losing the toss, he was prepared to give the team's youngster a chance by opening with Kris Moherndl.

The Cobo bowler responded magnificently with a superb debut spell of one for 13 from his six overs, including the first wicket, that of Ben Debenham.

The skipper did not play favourites at the other end either, whipping off an out-of-sorts Divan van den Heever after just two overs so as not to waste the new ball. The South African admitted that he was struggling.

His replacement Ami Banerjee was next to strike, removing the dangerous Ian Fletcher before Stuart Bisson claimed the prize scalp of Alan Gofton to reduce the visitors to 54 for three.

The fourth-wicket stand between Mark Bredell and Martin O'Reilly proved more difficult to break, with both batting sensibly in order to push their team towards a defendable target.

The big number four was particularly harsh on anything short, striking six fours in his 53 while his one six off Frith was actually caught by Banerjee at long-off, only for the Indian to cut short his teammates' celebrations with his signal for the maximum.

O'Reilly's 22 was a useful knock but when he smashed one to Biggins at mid-wicket, it began a collapse that saw the MCC lose their last seven wickets for 45 runs.

Cobo's spin duo of Frith and Rich did most of the damage, picking up three apiece and generally showing fine control.

Fellow spinner Aaron Scoones picked up a deserved wicket to end the innings at 156 with nine balls of the 50 overs still remaining.

Paul O'Reilly got an early wicket at the start of the reply, beating Matt Oliver with a beauty, but a second-wicket stand of 60 between Banerjee and Mark Clapham eased any tension and the hosts knew it was just a matter of time before the win was confirmed.

They did stutter over the finishing line somewhat, losing four more wickets, but the classy little Indian hung around and finished things in majestic style. He came down the track to lace a straight drive back over Fletcher's head to bring up his half-century and the winning runs in one blow.

'In recent years, perhaps one of our problems has been an inability to bowl sides out. But we have just bowled out four sides in four games playing against county class batsmen and no one has got 200 against us.

'It has been a very good week,' Biggins said.