Bichard’s early burst sets up Griffins win
AN AUGUST purple patch ended in silver for Griffins on Saturday as they were crowned Channel Islands club champions.
Sparked by a brilliant opening burst from player-of-the-match Luke Bichard, who took three wickets in his first two overs, including two in his first three balls, Tom Kirk’s side were convincing eight-wicket winners against Cobo in a one-sided Belasko CI League final at the KGV.
The result saw Griffins end their campaign with four wins in a row after having only slim hopes of securing a top-two place only a month ago.
‘It’s very unexpected with the season we’ve had and I think we’ve played very well the last month or so,’ said man of the moment Bichard.
‘We didn’t really start the season the way we wanted and just missed out on the local Weekend League, so to put together a string of performances – I think we won our last three group games, which were all against Jersey sides, and then obviously top it off with beating Cobo in the final quite convincingly – it was a nice way to end the season.
‘We just hit our straps at the right time – players starting scoring runs and we started bowling and fielding a bit better.
‘It’s a massive credit to us I think, we stuck to it. We could have easily folded halfway through the season, but we stuck to it and we’ve ended on a high.’
As for his own performance in the final, Bichard could not help but break into a broad smile as he recalled his first couple of overs, which came after a brief delay to the match caused by a shower just after the toss.
‘It was the dream start – nicked off first ball and third ball another wicket,’ Bichard said.
‘It rained just before and I think the pitch had a bit of moisture on it and it did a little bit up top.
‘I think we got the better bowling conditions today, it flattened out as it went on, so put it in the right areas, the pitch did quite a lot and we bowled and fielded as a unit really well.’
