The visitors, who came here as part of their preparations for the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League A event in Jersey, which begins on Thursday, were beaten by nine wickets and 113 runs in 50-over contests on Saturday and Sunday respectively despite the hosts missing some key players.
‘Really good performances in both games, I think, and different people stepping up and contributing, which is nice,’ said Guernsey captain Ollie Nightingale, who added it was a good confidence boost after the disappointment of the inter-insular defeat a week earlier.
‘Look, we are improving. We didn’t give a great account of ourselves against Jersey, but I think hopefully this weekend has shown the guys they are actually better than they think they are – and if we play the ball rather than the man in the future, we’ll probably go a lot better.
‘But hopefully if we just keep winning, guys will get used to it. And then when we play Jersey next year, we’ll give a better account of ourselves.’
While teenager Charlie Forshaw shone with seven wickets in Saturday’s win, Sunday’s success was built on a terrific partnership of 138 between Luke Bichard and Alex Bushell who both made half-centuries.
‘Really pleased for “Bushy”. He obviously came away with us to Holland, didn’t get a chance to play, but just kept training, keeps coming back, and what he did today was probably some of the cleanest striking I’ve seen, definitely this season and probably over the last couple of seasons,’ said Nightingale.
‘We know Luke can do it, it’s just about giving him the opportunities and actually him understanding how he puts in innings together. He’s not done much batting, he’s still fairly young, so exposing him to this sort of opposition, actually allowing him some time out there, will hopefully benefit him in the future. And we’ll see him up the order in the future.
‘Good on him, his batting improved a load last year, and he’s not really had any chance this year with injuries, so good for him to get out there and really, really pleased for both of them.’
Nightingale also praised the impact of the under-16s who played a part over the weekend, with Evan Le Huray picking up a couple of wickets and Freddie Forshaw one.
‘Credit to all the juniors who have been involved.
‘It’s been really nice actually having them around. They train with us now on a Wednesday night and we try and integrate the two sessions.
'Hopefully they’re learning and hopefully they’re going to develop really quickly and take some of the lads' spaces who are playing at the moment.’
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.