With travel links making it difficult for Jersey to get to the KGV with enough time for a 50-over contest, as had originally been scheduled in this summer’s programme, the Sarnians headed to Grainville instead and emerged victorious by an impressive 77-run margin, with Barnabas Smith and Alfie Gallienne playing starring roles in a fine all-round performance.
Smith’s 75 was the foundation for what proved to be a winning total after Guernsey had been asked to bat by their hosts with moisture around, before left-arm spinner Alfie Gallienne ripped through the Jersey batting order with a superb 10-over spell that resulted in brilliant figures of 6 for 19.
‘It was excellent, they played some really good cricket and outplayed them in all aspects,’ said assistant coach Craig Hogan.
‘Barnabas played really well. He came in at a tricky time, we had lost the toss, the wicket was doing a bit and we had lost Robbo early on, but Barnabas and Oscar Lewis steadied the ship and occupied the crease for a while before pushing on.
‘It was a good partnership between him and Freddie Forshaw, then young Oscar Martin made a useful 20-odd that got us over 200.
‘We also had to go off for rain during our innings, then go back out, so we did well to get up to that total.’
Captain Robinson was trapped LBW by Louie Pullman in the fourth over of the day, but fellow opener Lewis was joined by Smith and they stuck to their task well, adding 37 for the second-wicket when the going was tough.
After Lewis departed, Smith started moving through the gears, firstly supported by Ed Le Prevost before Freddie Forshaw joined him in the biggest stand of the innings as they put on 77 for the fourth wicket in just a dozen overs.
A naturally fast scorer, Forshaw’s 40 came at quicker than a run-a-ball and included five boundaries, while Smith pushed on after reaching a hard-earned half-century.
From 151 for 3, wickets fell with regularity as Guernsey looked to up the ante and Smith departed for a fine 75 from 93 balls having hit 10 fours, but Oscar Martin contributed a valuable 24 not out that ensured the Sarnians posted a total in excess of 200 in an innings reduced to 47 overs.
The skipper then made an early breakthrough in the Jersey reply as Robinson combined with wicketkeeper Smith to dismiss Theo Vautier and new-ball partner Mattie Collivet then removed Theo Bell inside the first eight overs.
But the real damage was done when Gallienne was introduced to the attack and reduced the hosts from 37 for 2 to 71 for 8 thanks to his accuracy and guile with batters undone by his variations in pace.
Jersey captain Sol Bennett was the sole home player to offer resistance on his way to make an unbeaten 40 from 66 deliveries, and after Gallienne had bowled out, Luke Bosio joined his skipper in a ninth-wicket stand of 56 to get the hosts into three figures.
But Robinson came back into the attack to end that partnership before Forshaw finished things off with 10 overs to spare.
‘Ollie Nightingale came across with us because we are linking the under-19s and the seniors together, so these lads have been training with the men and I think that’s helped them a lot,’ Hogan said.
‘There are a few things we definitely want to get better at, but they are a very nice group and very “coachable”. They really love their cricket and that’s really important going forward.’
