Independents: 109/7
Saints B: 113/2

Saints B won by 8 wickets.

Report by (Stand-in Captain) Fish

As per last season, Saints B team picked up their first win in the absence of their captain, thanks Fez. A great team performance saw us beat Irregulars comprehensively. The toss was won and the stand in skip decided to bowl seeing as he had the strongest bowling attack available to him, thanks again for your absence Fez – ha. Doddy and Tom V opened the bowling and both were right on the money, backed up by a real team effort in the field limiting Irregulars to very few singles. Both openers completed their 4 over spells and deservedly walked away with a couple of wickets in the bank. It was then over to the old guard (LJ & Gerve) to bowl the final eight overs. LJ was up first and was delighted to see that the ball was still looking in tip top condition after the opposition had hardly touched it. In fact the only marks on the ball after the irregular innings was a few teeth/nail marks from Alex when he needed every part of his anatomy to secure a looping catch and Josh’s superb run out which demolished the stumps in true Jonty Rhodes Style. Gerve may have also left a bit of blood on it after his stunning caught and bowled. Great bowling performance boys, all very economical and well deserved wickets. Well done to everyone in the field (that includes you Rodders, we’ll let you off that one seeing as you haven’t slept in a week), great standards set for the rest of the season. Irregulars finished on 109-7.

Over to Rodders and Shaunie to open the batting…..just as requested they got off to a flyer, with Rodders especially hitting the bad ball for fun. With little problems being created by the bowlers it seemed that the boys would bat the innings out but unfortunately Rodders fell in his mid 20’s after hitting one a bit too well to their best fielder. Fish came in at 3 to support Shaunie who was ticking on very nicely. Literally running everything and hitting some good boundaries off the multiple bad balls surely no more wickets would fall! That should have been the case but Fish also fell in his mid 20’s after deciding to take a single when the standing up wicket keeper had it in his hands – the stumping was so easy it was almost sarcastic. In at 4, who’s this stranger, it’s TV senior back after his horrific toe injury – welcome back fella. 3 or 4 balls later and a few quick fire boundaries from TV it was all over after only 12.5 overs. Well done Shaunie for batting through the innings and to everyone for a great team effort, lets keep it up and start climbing this league to where we belong.

Fish

p.s Thanks again Fez.

Colombians: 108/9, Narayanan 2/12, Noyon 2/27, Savage 2/31
Saints A: 111/5 Noyon 25*, Veillard 25, Thornton 21

Saints A comfortably beat Colombians at the KGV. Batting first, Colombians started poorly, losing a wicket in the first over, and never really got going. Saints’ bowling was tight and accurate and made it very hard for the oppo to score whilst taking wickets at regular intervals. Saints’ fielding was not as good as the opening game which largely accounts for them scoring 20-30 more than they should have. At 108, it didn’t look enough, and fortunately the batting proved it. RV and Brocky got involved early on, taking full advantage of the extra pace and large gaps in the field and scored with a freedom that was missing in the first innings. When Brock and RV fell in quick succession, it was up to Spenny and DJ to keep up the assault which they managed well, until Spenny took revenge for the previous game by refusing a single and having DJ run out. By then, however, Saints were within distance and although it could have gone down to the wire, some loose bowling at the death saw Saints home with 5 balls to spare.

Elizabeth College 2 110 a/o Narayanan 4/40, Capazario 2/16, Farish 2/16
Saint Saviours 111/1 Romeril 0.45*, Fisher 27

The GCA bowl side registered a win in their first game against the College 2nds, and claiming full batting and bowling points (admittedly they were a rather young side) but great to an opening win on the board, something which we can build on, again a good bowling and fielding performance had the college in all sorts of bother (two more catches for Brocky by the way) and 4 wickets for Ishi (who I have to say epitomises the meaning of the word sportsmanship after apologising to a batsman he had just bowled with a jaffa) and we finished them off for 110, knocking them off in the 16th over, with Sean Romeril top scoring with 45 (denied his 50 by DJ’s over enthusiastic running between the wickets!!)

Next one is 5th June.

Saints A 91/6 Farish 21, Brock 18, Tapp 16*
Cobo 123/8 Noyon 2/18, Capazario 2/29

Saints A lost by 31 runs

Saints got their campaign off with a disappointing loss to Cobo. Rumours were abound that Cobo weren’t fielding their usual strength team, but the teamsheet looked very different to that with the usual array of Island players in the fore.

We lost the toss and were asked to field, a task not made easier since at that point we only had 8 men on the field. As a result, Cobo got off to a flyer with more than 30 coming off the first three overs. The bowling remained disciplined though, and when Fezzle removed TJ Ozanne with an inducking yorker, Doddy removed Watson and Spence removed Saints turncoat Kneller, Saints were right back in it. Saints put on an impressive fielding performance and continued to peg back the div 1 champions, whilst taking regular wickets. And when former Island captain Stu Le Prev came in at 10 with the score on 90, in his own words, things were not going to plan. Unfortunately, he was able to partially recover things, smashing 31 in 2.5 overs, including 20 off Saints new boy Ryan Capazario, whose figures now don’t reflect how well he’d bowled overall. A target of 124 looked gettable.

Brocky and RV opened up and both were hittig the ball nicely but runs were hard to come by. RV was soon undone which brought DJ t the crease. Brocky holed out soon after, but new man Spenny didn’t even face a ball before being injudiciously run out by DJ, who was clearly still running in indoor mode.

Runs seemed hard to come by and the rate continued to climb. Tappy and Fezzle gave it a spirited effort at the end, Tappy knocking it about whilst Fezzle gave it the big bat treatment but as overs ran out Saints were just too far away.

It was a good opening performance with the bowling and fielding looking good which certainly gave a very real scare to the best side in the Division.

Saints B 124/4, Romeril 38, Farish 25*, Sallis 23
Sylvans 131/3, Tom Veillard 2/19

Saints B lost by 7 runs

Saints B: 94/5, Farish 24, Sallis 22, Fisher 19
Jazz Hats 95/6: Dodd 3-28, Vaudin 2-19

Saints B lost by 1 run.

Saints B: 117/2, Sallis 68*
St Sampsons, 118/1

St Sampson’s won by 9 wickets.

Saints: 73/8, Rudge 31.
Vagabonds: 74/1

Vagabonds won by 9 wickets.

The fixtures for the 2011 Evening League have been released and are available on the Guernsey Cricket website.

• A Team (Div 1)
• B team (Div 2)
• C team (Div 4)

After an epic 7-0 win over Corinthians last week, Saints bounced back full circle and got stuffed upside down 7-0 by Taverners. Matters weren’t helped by only having 7 players due to some communication issues! Oh well. Salemites next week…

Scoresheet.