OLD Victorians lost the KPMG Channel Islands Club Championship by 73 runs at Grainville on Saturday despite having the visitors reeling at 16 for 3 after Cobo had won the toss and elected to bat.

However, a captain’s knock of 75 by Stuart Le Prevost, coming in at No 4, and then tight, disciplined bowling by Cobo spinners Gary Rich and Jeremy Frith took the game away from OVs, who began their innings fairly confident that they could score the 204 runs needed to win on what appeared a fairly benign wicket under the sun.

‘Ideally, if I had won the toss, I would have elected to bat,’ said Old Victorians’ captain Chris Jones afterwards.

‘But even when they opened the batting, by the drinks’ interval they were in trouble, scoring no more than two or three runs an over.

‘It was obvious what they would try to do; to consolidate their innings and then go for their runs with about ten overs to go.

We spilled one or two chances, but when it came to our turn to bat, no one was prepared to take responsibility; to make a decent score of 50 or more.

Our top scorer was Jonny Gough with 32.’ With Andy Dewhurst and Jonny Gough at the crease it seemed that a target of 204 was gettable, as they took after the quicker bowlers.

However, as soon as Frith and fellow spinner Gary Rich were introduced, the game, almost immediately, fell away from an OVs’ XI who found themselves at the wrong end of a runs chase.

‘Quite honestly, I thought that 180 on that wicket was a good score,’ said man of the match, Cobo’s Stuart Le Prevost afterwards.

‘The ball was difficult to drive, although it looked like the OVs were putting together a decent partnership before I brought on the spinners in about the 18th or 19th over.

We needed to break up the Gough/Dewhurst partnership which happened almost immediately, when Rob Moore took a good catch at deep mid-wicket from a combination slog/sweep from Jonny Gough.

‘After that they lost wickets at regular intervals as our two spinners tied their batsmen down with good, tight bowling so, in their frustration to get runs, they also got out.’ Only Tom Minty, lower down the order, was able to mount any sort of challenge against the spin and it took an excellent catch to dismiss him – last man out – as Frith pitched a half decent ball down the pitch only to see it played back over his head as he ran in down the wicket.

However, he parried it, turned, and was agile enough to dive and catch the ball virtually behind him, leaving OVs all out for a modest score of 130, much to the delight of Cobo, who have now won this trophy twice in successive years.

For Old Victorians Tom Minty was economical, with 0 for 30 off nine overs; Andy Dewhurst and Jonny Gough took two wickets apiece, and Chris Jones felt rather aggrieved that he didn’t have Le Prevost given out, lbw, virtually before he’d scored a run.

However, the bowling figures of Cobo’s spinners tell their own story: 8 overs, three wickets and 20 runs for Rich and 7.1 overs, 28 runs and four wickets for Frith.

And, while Jones can take heart from the spirit of his side – they were even able to make fun of one or two missed catches – the final word must go to Le Prevost, whose score of 75 settled his side at a time when they looked to being all out for less than 100.

‘We tend to peak late on in the season, round about August, for some reason or another.

So we were fairly confident coming into this match and we’re building up a good, young squad for the years to come.

Gary Rich and Mark Renouf are the only players over 40.

And team selection wasn’t a problem .

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once Peter Vidamour broke his hand, selection was made so much easier .

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