JERSEY beat the Isle of Man but then lost to old rivals Guernsey in the Over-40s cricket tournament at Grainville this week.

With just one match remaining, Guernsey against the Isle of Man at the same venue today, it looks likely the Sarnians will be picking up the trophy at the post-competition dinner at the Pomme d’Or Hotel this evening.

It is hoped this will become an annual event, organised under the auspices of the ICC as each of the competing teams are ICC members.

Scotland, who were due to take part but pulled out a fortnight ago, would also be included in future.

On Tuesday the Isle of Man won the toss and elected to bat but were dismissed for just 81.

On a good wicket, Jersey’s bowlers all performed well and the wickets were shared between them.

Mark Saralis and Dave Buxton opened the reply and the former was out just before the winning runs were struck having completed a half-century.

The nine-wicket victory was completed off just 11.5 of the 45 overs.

Yesterday’s match was high scoring on an excellent batting track.

Jersey won the toss and opted to make first use of the pitch.

Ward Jenner (61), Keith Dennis (60 not out) and Phil Evans (38 not out) made telling contributions to a total of 248 for 6, the latter sharing an unbroken century seventh-wicket partnership.

Jersey skipper Dave Gorman said this morning: ’248 was a good score, but I just felt it was 20 or 30 runs short of what was needed.’ And he was proved right.

Guernsey’s seven-wicket victory was based around a fine unbeaten century from Gary Rich.

He received support from Richard Headington (40) and Ian Damarell (70 not out).

The winnings runs came off the last ball of the penultimate over.

‘No matter what we tried or who we bowled we couldn’t contain them,’ Gorman said.

‘Mind you we didn’t help ourselves by dropping at least five catches.’ He said he hoped it would become an annual event: ‘Jersey is well positioned to host such events.

It is good for tourism, good for cricket and good for the economy.

It is something we can develop within the ICC framework.

‘A lot of people are playing cricket longer and there are many players in that age group and events such as this will prolong their interest even further.’