THE Over 40s Trophy continued its ping-pong existence when Guernsey took it back home after defeating Jersey at Grainville last Sunday.

But it would have surely been a different story had Jersey held on to at least a couple of the plethora of catches that the opposition offered during their innings.

It seems that as age advances, the ability to catch the ball decreases – while the list of lame excuses for dropping the ball increases markedly.

Although I’m hardly entitled to be throwing any stones when it comes to dropped catches, except maybe at Steve Carlyon, who it has to be said batted superbly for his 93 runs but again dropped a catch in the slips. Fortunately it was nowhere as important as last year’s hat-trick ball drop, and it was only off Paul Horton’s bowling.

The batsman, who was on 4 at the time, did go on to score 60, though (unlike the batsman I dropped – he went on to score a mere hundred). Still, it was a very difficult catch (mine, not Steve’s) as the wind was swirling, the rain was falling, the sun was shining and a large amount of ground, with a bad foot, had to be covered to get anywhere near the ball.

Dave Gorman, who has also represented the over-50s recently, showed his junior team mates how to do it by holding on to the only successful catch of the Guernsey innings.

He did join the list of butter-fingered individuals later on, though, when one slipped from his grasp, but given his age it is entirely permissible and I guess that his failure to be able to recollect the moment when he dropped the ball could also be put down to the memory problems that can beset that age-group.

He further argued that he couldn’t have dropped a catch as, it should be perfectly obvious, he hadn’t been playing cricket at all as he had his golf shoes on, so had surely been playing golf, before being dragged off by two ladies in white uniforms.

As you would expect when old timers converge, there is talk of the good old days and much reminiscing.
Last year the tale of Don Faux’s dramatic departure from the pitch at the Kensington Oval got another airing, while this year the sight of Colin Graham on a cricket pitch recently seems to have brought him to the forefront of people’s minds.

Everyone seems to have a Colin Graham story, but tales of him once killing a wicketkeeper and the first and second slips with the cartwheeling stumps after bowling someone out, or being able to run so fast that he could run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head, should be taken with a pinch of salt.

He was, however, a precocious talent but just couldn’t, it seemed, be bothered with it all. If only there was some sort of machine that could harness Colin’s athleticism and ability and merge it with Andy Brown’s bloody-minded determination, and perhaps add Ward Jenner’s looks, you would surely create the perfect specimen.

It would make a great film: The Good, the Bad and the Ridiculously Good Looking, with perhaps Chuck Norris playing the result of the unholy alliance.

Anyway, last week’s Colin Graham story was told by Nigel Greenwood, who recounted a sports day at Victoria College. Colin, who was just passing by, was asked if he could fill the shoes of the person who was supposed to be throwing the javelin, as he hadn’t turned up.

He casually obliged and picked up the javelin and threw it. It ended up going further than anyone from the school had ever thrown it before – a record I believe to be still intact – and by the end of the year he was one of the top ten javelin throwers in the UK.

Just think what he could have achieved with that essence of Brown – he could surely have been a champion, or at least the number two.

LAST Saturday was a highly eventful day as the two CI matches that took in place in Jersey were both won by the teams that will not progress into the knock-out stages of the competition.

The fates have not been kind to either OVs or Romerils in this year’s competition, as the first-round matches were all cancelled, and as they were due to play the easiest teams in their groups, they potentially both lost out on 40 points.

Come the final matches then, both SCF and St Ouen knew that they only needed to restrict their opposition to fewer bonus points they had achieved in the wins over those teams to qualify.
So it is St Ouen and SCF who now go through to represent Jersey and play Wanderers and Cobo respectively in this weeks semi finals.

Cobo v SCF (Grainville)

This is the competition Cobo set out to win. In reality, it seems to be the only time they are truly tested, as they tend to win the Guernsey league in a canter with many of their players going through the season without breaking sweat.

If they are to win this competition, they will need to work a bit harder, although reports that SCF will be without Steve Carlyon and Phil Rammage could mean that they may be able to leave the anti-perspirant at home, but they will know enough about the remainder of their opposition not to take anything for granted.

SCF managed to prevent Romerils from gaining enough bonus points to qualify last week, despite another hundred from Ryan Driver, and although never in danger of passing the 259 they had been set, their 186 for 4 was good enough to see them progress.

They will have to be at their best to progress further, as the Cobo side are virtually the Guernsey island side. They have had some great battles over the years and SCF beat them in the final a couple of years ago in Guernsey, while Cobo gained revenge last year in the group stages before getting beaten in the semi finals.
This year I fear Cobo may again just have too many Guerns for SCF.
Prediction: Cobo set for final
destination.

St Ouen v Wanderers (Guernsey)

The St Ouen camp are very upbeat about their chances of victory in this competition, if a text message to Paul Horton from Richard Gomersall saying ‘We can win this’ at midnight on the Saturday after they scraped through to the semi-finals is anything to go by.

They deserve some success, as they have been going to considerable lengths to make sure that their players have not been partaking in the usual St Ouen pre-match Friday night routine.

Last Friday poor Richard Gomersall and captain Dean Morrison took it upon themselves to monitor likely hot-spots, taking in the Post Horn from five o’clock till ten, then last orders in Friday’s before the late shift in the Royal Yacht.

To their relief, there was not one St Ouen player at any of the venues, but they did see a member of their opposition, a certain Chris Jones, who was out on the town with his wife, which may be something OVs captain Pete Gough will want to pull him up about.

I can just see how that conversation would go. Pete (with as stern a face as he can muster): ‘Jonesy, I hear you were out late last Friday night in the Royal Yacht.’
Jonsey (looking as apologetic as possible): ‘Yes Pete, I’m afraid I was.’
Pete: ‘You should have given us a shout, we were all in Mint.’

Jonesy may have paid a heavy price for his nocturnal indiscretion, as he was stumped off a very leg-side wide, bowled by none other than Richard Gomersall, who was again in the wickets, making his figures for the past two weeks 7 for 23! Tanzania here he surely comes.

The team sheet Dean Morrison was waving around last weekend was a pretty impressive one and included Richard ‘Badger’ Baigent, who, it seems, despite Richard Gomersall’s assurance that he had been called that for years, has never been called Badger in his life.

I suspect, however, that he may have now found himself a new nickname, sorry … Badger. If all 11 players on that sheet turn up at the Airport on Saturday, there must be a great chance of them beating Wanderers and reaching the final. What a momentous occasion in the club’s history that would be.
Prediction: St Ouen set to fly to new heights.