IRONICALLY, as we hit the middle of the summer and perfect cricket weather the league ends.
Sadly so does Springfield’s season.
The rest of the season is taken up with the Senior Cup and the Channel Islands KO Cup and they are not involved.
Tomorrow is semi-finals day in the Senior Cup with old rivals Romerils and Sporting Club at the FB Fields and Caesareans and St Ouen at Grainville; two intriguing matches, to be sure.
Romerils v Sporting Club Romerils have once again finished the season weakly and looked dejected when Old Victorians rolled them over to claim the final spot in the knock outs last weekend.
Caesareans will not have been best pleased by Romerils’ performance and neither was Peter Blackburn who will have to use all his motivational powers of the ‘could you please try a little bit harder’ ilk to lift his men to beat the champions, although he shouldn’t really need to, as pride is at stake.
Sporting have already completed a league double over Romerils, a reversal of last season’s results, and look back to their intimidating best.
Matty Hague is batting as well as ever, recovering from a duck in his first match to score 407 runs at an average of 58, but unfortunately Steve Carlyon, the league’s highest scorer with 456 at an average of 57, is out with a bad back, so it will be interesting to see who they open with.
Spectators will, I’m sure, find this match a better spectacle than the last one between the sides at Les Quennevais a couple of weeks ago.
The FB outfield is looking pretty quick and there should be lots of runs on offer.
Hopefully Ryan Driver will be among them as he is not enjoying the best of luck.
It is hard to tell which of his recent misfortunes he will have lost most sleep about.
The duck against Springfield, a golden duck against Sporting Club, scoring five singles before getting fooled by Alan Lesbirel’s cunning slower ball or getting hit for a six by Peter Canham.
He needn’t feel ashamed about any of them, I mean everyone gets a duck now and then, and Alan can be a canny bowler, and who hasn’t been hit for a six by Canham? He will be glad to be back on FB 1 as the last time he played there he hit 144, not to mention a rapid fifty the other night, so don’t write him off just yet.
Sporting could still claim the remaining trophies on offer this season.
They already have the championship in the bag and could win the Senior and CI Cups, they are top of the Division I in the Evening league, have collected the JEP KO Cup, and have a chance of winning the First Division league.
After Gillian’s success last week Norah is under pressure to get a few predictions right.
Her week’s holiday appears to have been just what she needed after a harrowing year, which has included spells in prison and rehab.
At least she has managed to stay out of the straight jacket this season, although after predicting a tie in the previous match I’m not sure how.
She says Romerils will be able to reverse the form of their last meeting with SCF which will at least reduce the problem of where they were going to put all that silverware.
Prediction: Blackburn to inspire Romerils return to form on favoured hunting ground.
St Ouen v Caesareans St Ouen have been unusually consistent this season and have managed to win half of their league matches.
That was good enough for third place, their best effort for some years and their final match victory against a good Old Victorians side suggested they haven’t stopped winning for the season yet.
Several of their players have been in good form throughout the season, Dave Morfee is an absentee tomorrow but has had a year he will not forget taking 16 wickets and scoring 332 runs and even Richard Gullible, previously considered a one-wicket pony, has taken 11 wickets, something even Norah’s Waterford crystal ball could never have predicted.
Dave Parry’s form has tailed off a bit but he still managed to pass the 200-run barrier, Jamie Brewster has smashed his way to 317 runs for the season and 197 runs have come from Rob Tewkesbury’s bat.
On the other hand Caesareans will be disappointed they could not build on last season’s good finish and missed out on a place in the CI Cup.
They have generally been giving away too many extras and have got bowled out for modest totals too often - four times below 150.
They did find their feet in the second half of the season, winning three of their last four matches, including a good win against St Ouen at Quennevias a few weeks ago, but it was too late to secure a top four slot.
Dave Buxton is their only batsman to get over 200 runs although Barry Parsons and Danny Betram reached the 190’s.
Things have been better on the bowling front; Jules Nolli is the NatWest League’s leading wicket taker with 18 and Naveed Rafique has given them a useful option along with young James Perchard, whose first season in senior cricket has seen him take 12 wickets at an average of 18.
The score between these sides stands at a win each this season and this promises to be a close match, Caesareans will be keen to win to get an extra game out of the season but I just think St Ouen may just sneak it although if Dave Gorman is able to reproduce the form that saw him hit 130 for the Over-50s against Wiltshire on Wednesday things could be very different.
After that though, he may need to put his feet up, have a nice cup of tea and get Pat to rub his bunions.
Prediction: St Ouen victory to set up clash with Romerils in final.
Article posted on 21st July, 2006 - 12.00am
Most Commented: