WATCH: Hard work pays off in historic Guernsey win
Triumphant Guernsey were the toast of the KGV yesterday as they took a step towards the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 with a famous victory over Denmark in the final of their sub-regional qualifier.
Going into the match as underdogs against opponents who had progressed through their group unbeaten, the hosts saved the best for last with an outstanding performance to seal a convincing six-wicket win, chasing down 159 with eight balls to spare.
Player-of-the-match Matt Stokes was the star of the show with a classy 67 not out to guide the Greens home, but each Sarnian played his part throughout the tournament.
‘I’m really pleased for the guys, really pleased for Matty – he’s carried us for quite a while, so it’s brilliant for him to be out there and finish it and fair play to everyone else,’ said captain Ollie Nightingale, who was in the middle with Stokes when he hit the winning run.
‘In the final, you probably would have wanted [to be chasing] a few less, but fair play to the guys in the middle order for them, they played really nicely.
‘But once we got ahead, we knew that with Stokesy out there we would always be in control and he batted beautifully.
‘He’s better than the rest of us,’ the skipper added with a chuckle.
Watch: Reaction from coach Craig Hogan, captain Ollie Nightingale and wicket-keeper Zak Damarell
Nightingale felt that his side had shown great character to respond to Saturday’s narrow defeat to Finland by beating both Estonia and Denmark.
‘We played a close game on Saturday, it was probably a bit of a wake-up call, but fair play to the guys, everyone stepped up today.’
Guernsey will now progress to the Europe Regional Final next summer when they will be up against Scotland and the Netherlands as well as the other sub-regional qualifiers Italy and Jersey.
Nightingale believes that promotion is vindication of the work the squad have put in for many months.
‘The guys trained really hard over the winter, probably harder than we have for quite a while and then, like we’ve touched on many times, in April when it was cold and wet we played those academy games,’ said the skipper.
‘So I think it’s testament to everyone who’s worked hard and all the 14 full squad members this week have played a part, and everyone in the 18 as well.’
• Full final report in Thursday's Guernsey Press.
