Up-and-coming Sarnians ready to shine on home soil

Hosts Guernsey are in a good place as they begin on the pathway towards the U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup 2028 this week – and not just because they are on home soil.

Gareth Le Prevost Sport Editor

Published an hour ago

Better known for his slow left-arm spin, Alfie Gallienne made useful contributions with the bat for Guernsey at the ICC Festival in Taunton last week. / Picture by Gareth Le Prevost

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Following on from their impressive inter-insular win over their Jersey counterparts at Grainville earlier this month, the Sarnians enjoyed five days of competitive action at the ICC Europe International T20 Festival in Taunton last week where they registered some excellent results in preparation for battling it out with seven other nations here in the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup Europe Division Two Qualifier.

Although the Greens got off to a sluggish start in Somerset where they lost their opening fixture to a strong King’s College team – not helped by a delayed and rough ferry journey to attend the festival – they responded with a fine performance in a narrow four-run defeat to pre-event favourites the Netherlands that afternoon.

They went on to beat each of the other five teams – Italy, Jersey, Scotland, Denmark and the Isle of Man – in the round-robin before completing the double over the Danes, who they faced again on the final day.

While the T20 format was different to the 50-over matches they will face in the qualifier, with the games in Taunton played on grass pitches with a pink ball against opposition from a varying age range, Guernsey U19 head coach Philip Smith felt that the experience was very beneficial for his squad of U17s.

‘It’s been a really good week for us,’ he said after the second victory over Denmark.

‘The main thing was about getting a good volume cricket in for our lads before the U19 tournament – they’ve had that – and then really it was a good chance for the lads to apply all their technical work from over the winter in a game situation, just developing lots of good game awareness and just learning how to properly apply skills in a game situation.

Barney Groves (95) and Oscar Lewis batting against the Netherlands. / Picture by Gareth Le Prevost

‘We’re on UK uncovered wickets, it’s doing a bit with a pink ball, the lads aren’t used to that, they’re used to very nice wickets in Guernsey, so playing against different sorts of players, different bowlers with the ball doing a bit on the wicket as well, it was a really good test for them.

‘You can spend a winter in the nets, but where you really learn is in a game. We’ve had eight games in five days, won six, lost two, so a really good week for them.’

Among the highlights of the week were captain Ed Robinson’s high-class 72 against Scotland, while spinners Freddie Forshaw and Alfie Gallienne were both among the wickets and runs, but every member of the squad contributed throughout the week.

On the downside, though, Guernsey suffered the blow of losing Barnabas Smith to a freak injury picked up in the process of hitting a six against Italy on day two.

‘I think the one really unfortunate situation was Barnabas, our wicketkeeper and batter, fracturing his pelvis over here, but everyone else thankfully has come through unscathed and, like I say, they’ve had lots of cricket and we’re looking good for a tournament,’ said Smith senior.

In the Europe Division Two Qualifier, Guernsey will be in a group with Belgium, France Cricket and Germany while the other group comprises Sweden, the Isle of Man, Switzerland and Italy.

Matches will be played at the KGV, Port Soif, the College Field and the Memorial Field.

‘I think if they keep tracking the way they’re tracking – we had really good win against Scotland, took the Netherlands close, with some other strong performances – and if they put their skills together, we’ll be fine,’ said the head coach.

Guernsey U19 squad

Ed Robinson (captain), Freddie Forshaw (vice-captain), Alfie Gallienne, Barney Groves, Ed Le Prevost (wk), Evan Le Huray, Freddie Wakelin, Joel Hoolahan, Mattie Collivet, Ollie Trudgeon, Oscar Lewis, Oscar Martin, Will Verdellis, George Bisson.