Jefferies and Clapham clinch season's first cup

MARK CLAPHAM'S gutsy half-century ensured Clubhouse Optimists claimed the first piece of silverware of the season on Saturday. Although Total Cobo had set a below-par 159 as they failed to bat through their allotted 45 overs in the Dave Fisher Memorial Trophy match at the KGV, the former island captain had to be watchful as his side were missing their two big stars in Ami Banerjee and Andy Biggins.

He paced his innings perfectly and in typical Clapham fashion, with any plays-and-misses (and there were a few) greeted with a brief nod and then forgotten about.

Whenever possible, he leaped upon any bad ball and punished it without taking risks and, when things got a bit nervy as wickets began to fall, he managed to guide his lower order home.

Both sides went into the game understrength with Cobo's absentees including Jeremy Frith, Kris Moherndl and Robbie Moore, although they still started as favourites due to the lack of Banerjee and Biggins in the opposition's line-up.

Stuart Le Prevost had no hestitation in opting to bat first and it seemed a sound plan when Matt Oliver picked up from where he had left off last summer.

The GCA player of the year used his new 3lb-plus bat to good effect with some brutal drives as anything over pitched flew to the boundary.

He lost opening partner Justin Ferbrache early on as Chris van Vliet struck and number three Jamie Nussbaumer looked distinctly rusty in his 11.

But Oliver and his captain comfortably took the score on from 56 for two into three figures and a big score seemed on the cards.

Then up stepped Mark Jefferies.

The Optimists captain stated pre-season that the one thing his side perhaps lacked was a decent spin option. Maybe he underestimated his own off breaks, although he was possibly more surprised than most with his nine-over spell which yielded five for 27.

He made the vital breakthrough when Le Prevost holed out to deep mid-wicket where Charlie Rix took a juggling catch before Oliver, who had made an impressive 71, top-edged a sweep and Ian Damarell took the simplest of catches.

TJ Ozanne departed the next ball and suddenly Cobo were in all sorts of strife at 127 for five.

The wickets continued to fall with Jefferies picking up two more before van Vliet and Steve Queripel returned to clean up the tail.

Despite being disappointed with their score, the CI champions knew a couple of early breakthroughs would have Optimists under pressure.

Clapham and Tim de Putron did not allow that to happen as they put together an opening stand of 87.

They rode their luck on a couple of occasions with Blane Queripel usually the unfortunate bowler in a decent opening spell but they kept ahead of the required rate with ease, helped by several extras.

However, the introduction of Gary Rich breathed new life into the game.

The island all-rounder demolished the Optimists order with an outstanding spell of five for 10.

Knowing there were still plenty of overs available, Clapham was happy to see him off but his partners could not and they fell by the wayside one after another.

Le Prevost, whose off spin is even more occasional than Jefferies', chipped in with the wicket of Damarell and had Mark Renouf not lost a golden chance to dismiss Bisson in the sun, it could have been an amazing finish.

As it was, Clapham, who ended unbeaten on 77 from 159 balls including eight boundaries, and Bisson saw Optimists home with four overs to spare.