Five decades: great wins and droughts

Due largely to their invincibility in the 1990s, Jersey lead the inter-insular cricket series by four with 21 wins to Guernsey's 17. There have been 12 draws. There have been a host of classic encounters but Guernsey Press sports editor Rob Batiste, who has witnessed most games over the past three decades, has singled out five which will live long in his memory THE year was 1974 and the Guernsey Press headline was one to make every local cricket fan burst with pride.

John Le Poidevin wrote the account of the game played at the FB Fields as well as the headline: THE FINEST HOUR - Might of Jersey cricket humbled.

And he was right to make the most of it for two very good reasons.

For a start, it had ended a period of Caesarean domination.

Jersey, with the aid of a few lucky draws, had not lost in a decade and to beat them by 10 wickets on their home patch was as sweet as it gets.

Guernsey skipper Ricky Mills had predicted as much the day before. 'There is no way we can lose,' said the Rovers legend and with an outstanding team of youth and experience, he was dead right.

Guernsey named three new caps in Harlequins' tyro fast bowler Mike de Haaff and batsmen Alan Lewis (St Martin's) and John Mountford (Rovers).

There was also a recall for Pessimists' Bryan Preston, who was to get better with age but, like Mountford, was not required such was the humiliating domination of the Guernsey openers, Lewis and Tony Taylor.

After Warren Barrett had taken five for 20 from 17 overs and de Haaff chipped in with two for 33 from 15, Jersey were back in the antiquated but charming FB Fields pavilion, chins on their chests wondering how on earth they could defend 103.

Simply, they couldn't.

Lewis and Taylor, a classic right and left-hand combination and indisputably the best opening pair we have ever fielded, stroked the visitors home with 42 and 52 respectively and with 27 overs to spare.

Le Poidevin, on the wrong end of a few Jersey defeats himself, was happy to ram the result down Caesarean throats, noting that the previous evening the home team had been boasting that their cricket was: a - of a higher standard; b - better organised; c - more frequent.

Guernsey won again a year later but were denied a hat-trick in a marvellously entertaining draw at a sun-drenched Victoria College ground in 1976.

In conditions so reminiscent of that wonderful summer and with the Guernsey fans taking a leaf out of the West Indian fans by using empty beer cans to add musical atmosphere, the supporters were treated to 487 runs in the day.

Mike Weaver's Jersey, determined not to lose, declared at 273 for five and allowed the visitors just 95min. and 20 overs to extend their winning sequence.

Guernsey, to their credit, gave it a go and under a blistering hot sun eased to 110 for two at the start of the last 20.

Barrett and Mills were set and when the former took all 18 from one Barry Middleton over, the target was a gettable 97 off the last 12.

Ironically, a spinner half the slow bowler Barrett was, and the best the CI has seen - struck for Jersey.

Norman Fage got rid of both the third-wicket men and despite the thirst for runs from the vocal visiting crowd, Guernsey settled for a draw.

The 1982 game brought another away win for the greens and their second successive one on the still relatively new inter-island venue at Grainville.

The bouncy, rock-hard Bill Blampied track suited Middleton to a tee, but Jersey did not reckon on our new joker, the quietly-spoken Taverner and then Tortevite, Julian Wood.

The northerner stroked a cultured undefeated 54 as Guernsey eased to an eight-wicket win, this after Miles Dobson had ripped the heart out of the Jersey batting with a superb 15-over spell of swing at speed, which realised figures of six for 37.

All out for 112, Jersey were swept away with more than 20 overs to spare.

The rest of the eighties were fairly even-steven and the decade ended with a fantastic debut by Guernsey's then boy-wonder.

Stuart Mackay, just 18 and the star of the best Elizabeth College team since the Howick-Webber years of the early seventies, became only the third batsman to score a century in the fixture.

He had already hit a hundred in the inter-collegiate game and won the under-19 and under-23 games virtually off his own bat.

On his home ground at the College Field, he marked his senior debut with another ton as Guernsey reached 208 for seven from their 45.

With three balls of the innings remaining, Mackay still needed six for three-figures.

Next ball he planted his left-foot well forward and caressed a glorious cover drive to the boundary and off the penultimate delivery an inside edge past leg stump brought him the two required.

Guernsey's spin twins, Barrett (17-4-52-4) and Ralph Anthony (20-7-31-3), completed the job and Jersey trudged off well short of their target at 151 for nine, the Rue a l'Or end 'hill' chirping cheerfully all the way.

Guernsey's ever-present support retained boisterous throughout the nineties, but it never did their team any good.

Jersey were untouchable in that period and reeled off 11 wins on the bounce.

There were occasions we got close but, mentally, the red caps with Ward Jenner at the helm were always that bit stronger.

By the time the 2002 game came around, the greens had simply forgotten how to win, but the change of luck so desperately required came with the combined arrival on these shores of an Indian, who once had Sachin Tendulkar as a team-mate, a New Zealander with a first-class ton to his name and an Englishman who might so easily have made it in first-class county cricket.

Ami Banerjee, Glenn Milnes and Jeremy Frith gave Guernsey the required leg-up and with the likes of Stuart Le Prevost maturing into an island-class player in his own right, Andy Biggins skippering skilfully and Gary Rich finally at home in this pressure-cooker arena, the drought was gloriously ended at Grainville.

Chasing 253 for the win after a man-of-the-match 88 not out from Frith, 50 from Banerjee and a clattering 37 by Le Prevost, Jersey could not get close as Milnes (3 for 41) and Rich (4 for 79) spun their very different webs.

Peter Vidamour, the Guernsey manager, was euphoric in his praise for Frith in particular.

'That was probably the best knock I've seen in local cricket - it was so unorthodox,' said Vidamour, a man who played the odd masterful innings himself at this level.

It certainly got the Guernsey ball rolling.

The summers of 2003, 4, 5 and 6 brought further Sarnian victories and on the grounds that our foreigners are better than theirs, we should be hopeful of another win next week.

There can be no doubt, the depth of quality in both sides has risen markedly in the past decade, much of it due to the influx of overseas talent.

There are those who would rather see 11 Guernseymen play 11 Jerseymen, but were that the case I can assure you it would be a whole lot less entertaining.

Winning is one thing, but the game is everything.

Watching quality cricket played in the right spirit and with not a jelly-bean or shoulder-barge in sight, is what it should all be about. Why, it's even good for the fixture that Jersey should sometimes win.