OLD VICTORIANS will meet Cobo in the final of the KPMG Channel Islands Club Championship next Saturday at Grainville.

The semi-finals featuring the top two in each island were keenly contested on Saturday, with Jersey Weekend League Premier Division champions Old Victorians beating Sporting Club by 11 runs and Guernsey Afternoon League runners-up Cobo inflicting a seven-run defeat on Optimists.

Old Victorians won the toss and elected to make first use of the Grainville wicket.

However, despite several of their batsmen getting a good start, nobody went on to play a significant innings.

Openers Peter Gough and Chris Jones top scored with 27 and 33 respectively and shared an opening stand of 38 as Old Victorians were restricted to 182 for 9 from their 45 overs.

After early lives for openers Steve Carlyon and Mathew Hague – the former an easy chance to Ward Jenner in the gulley and the latter a difficult effort to Phil Le Cornu at slip – Sporting Club were well placed after an opening stand of 115 in 30 overs.

But after both openers were dismissed, Carlyon for 44 and Hague for 72, the runs dried up and wickets fell at regular intervals as the innings eventually closed on 171 for 8.

Said Old Victorians skipper Chris Jones: ‘It was a bit too close.

We didn’t do justice with the bat.

When you have the Victoria College 1st XI No 3 coming in at 10 you should be setting a decent target, but Mark Reynolds and Matt Hague bowled very well in the middle of the innings.

‘Then we dropped Steve Carlyon and Matt early and they were going very well.

We mixed the bowling up a bit, but really they let us back into the game.’ Sporting Club captain Hague was a little perplexed: ‘It’s difficult to explain the defeat.

It was almost in the bag and then I don’t know what went wrong.

‘With so many wickets in hand we should have made the runs with several overs to spare.

But after a good partnership the new batsmen struggled to get going and we couldn’t find the boundary.

‘Old Victorians are a good young team who never give up and I hope they go on and win it on Saturday.’ In Guernsey, Cobo scored 247 for 8 with Stuart Le Prevost hitting 86 and the Optimists reply closed at 240 for 9.