Bishop gets 'B' XI call-up

DAVE HEARSE has named Ryan Bishop in the Guernsey B team that takes on Jersey this Sunday. The South African has been nothing short of a sensation for Rovers since he arrived in the island at the start of the season. The 20-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman has shown great prowess behind the stumps and has regularly been hitting 50s with ease.

His efforts saw him named as Barclays Evening League Division One for June.

He is in the current Guernsey squad and looks set to make his full island debut a week Saturday against Jersey.

Island Hearse manager has decided to give Bishop a taster of playing against Jersey in this Sunday's B inter-insular at Grainville.

'I've brought Ryan in because he's never experienced an inter-insular before,' said Hearse.

'I wanted to shore up the batting after some other players were unavailable and I wanted to give Ryan some extra batting practice.'

Bishop is looking forward to the challenge. He was picked for Guernsey's game against the MCC last month that was rained off.

'I'm pretty excited and I'm definitely looking forward to it,' he said.

'It should be good to finally get a game for a Guernsey side. I heard there's a lot of rivalry so beat them would be a big thing for everyone.

'I'd love to beat them.'

But Bishop will not be donning the wicketkeeping gloves. That honour goes to Mavericks' young keeper Tom Kimber.

The side is captained by Bishop's skipper at Rovers, Stuart Bisson, who led the side to victory in last year's clash at the KGV.

The best performers of that day, off spinner Aaron Scoones and seamer Pierre Moody, who both contributed with valuable runs down the order, also feature in Sunday's match. Rovers' new signing Luke Nussbaumer also makes the grade.

The rest of the team are made up of Cobo players - Jamie Nussbaumer, Kris Moherndl, Peter Le Hegarat, Ben Ferbrache and TJ Ozanne.

Hearse will certainly be using the game to view players on the fringe of the full senior team ahead of the big Jersey match. Young quick bowlers Le Hegarat and Moherndl are two of those vying for a spot.

'It's a mixture of people who deserve a place from what they've done this year and people who have been involved in the senior squad along with many that they have got the under-23 tournament in mid-August,' he said.

'We've lost a lot of cricket through rain this year and we've got two big things with the U23 tournament and the inter-insular coming up. I want to give all those an extra game.

'Hopefully that team will return with the trophy. It's an important match.

'Some of these people won't get the chance to play in too many inter-insulars. Some will, some won't, so I'm sure it will be important to them.'