The Sarnians overcame a few tense moments late in the day to overcome Germany by 85 runs in, remarkably, a rain-affected clash at Port Soif and seal third place in the ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup Europe Division Two Qualifier.
That meant the hosts finished with an impressive four-wins-from-five record for the tournament – a tally that no other nation surpassed – and yet they were not one of the two promoted sides at the end of the week.
Having also won four games, and in their case in succession after an opening day defeat, Italy were deserving winners of the Qualifier, but because of their loss to Sweden in the semi-finals, Guernsey were left wondering what might have been despite having a lot to be proud of.
‘It’s a difficult one,’ said Guernsey U19 head coach Philip Smith as he tried to sum up his side’s tournament.
‘So we’ve won four out of five, and unfortunately the one we lost was the big semi-final where we just didn’t quite turn up on the day, didn’t execute the basic skills, and the guys were really disappointed in how they played.
‘But the main thing is that the guys are continuing to develop, there’s a chunk of them that are heading rapidly into senior representative cricket, which is awesome, and there’s a few of them who will definitely have an U19 tournament in 2028.
‘They’ve just got to keep building, keep improving and keep developing.’
Captain Ed Robinson led by terrific example in their final outing.
Having won the toss and elected to bat, he hit a magnificent century and shared in an outstanding opening stand of 159 with Oscar Lewis, one of the squad members who is still in the under-15 age bracket, to lay the foundation for their victory.
Their contributions were interrupted by a lunchtime shower that caused the game to be reduced to 45 overs per side, but a rare spot of rain was not going to halt Robinson’s momentum and he made 125 from 108 balls with 13 fours and three sixes.
The skipper also had a second-wicket stand of 50 with Alfie Gallienne, who made a run-a-ball 35, after Lewis had departed for a valuable 46, while all-rounder Freddie Forshaw made a rapid 56 with four fours and a couple of sixes as Guernsey pressed on past 300.
Once the calculations had been completed between innings, Germany were set 313 for victory and having been reduced to 97 for 5 by Robinson, Mattie Collivet and Gallienne, their chances looked very slim.
However, Heimer Wegener was not giving up and number seven Freddie Tucker played a superb innings filled with quality shots and excellent timing to make the improbable look possible for a while.
The Greens held their nerve, though, and eventually the wickets started to fall again and Forshaw took the catch in the deep as Tucker holed out off Barney Groves which virtually settled the game.
Germany were finally bowled out for 227 with Forshaw fittingly taking the last wicket.
‘We had a good chat with them this morning and we just said, look, it’s not often that you get the chance to represent your country at a sport that you love, and actually bouncing back today was as important as potentially as winning the semi-final in terms of how we react, how we learnt from the loss against Sweden,’ Smith said.
‘We wanted to see a little bit of character from the boys and they did really well.’
The head coach added that by playing more ‘better quality’ cricket, he could see the side’s game awareness and decision making developing throughout the week and the key going forward would be for the players to learn to execute their skills in pressurised moments.
Smith is in no doubt, having spent years involved with the group, alongside manager Paul Robinson, that they want to do that going forward into their senior careers.
‘I’m getting quite emotional talking about them actually – it’s weird isn’t it?’ he said.
‘They’re a great bunch of young adults, and they love cricket. They absolutely love cricket.
‘If they had an offer of do you want to go down the beach on a hot day or do you want to go and have a net, they’ll go and have a net. They just love the game.
‘They bonded really well. You’ve got a mixed range of ages – you’ve got 15-year-olds up to 17-year-olds – and they just include everyone, get on well.
‘But most importantly, they love the game.’
