14 Top cricketer

14 – Mike Kinder

FEW players in the history of the local game have bowled more meanly than this Yorkshireman who arrived to teach sport at Elizabeth College in the early 1980s and was very quickly a regular in the Island side. But it is a combination of high-level skills and outstanding commitment in terms of coaching and administration that raises his standing in the Top 100 countdown. It is difficult and perhaps impossible to name any other top cricketer who has put so much back into the sport and, crucially, so effectively.

Now, well into his 70s, he is a regular face in the middle as an umpire. Flashback 40 years and Rovers were still the dominant club when Kinder arrived to bolster an already formidable unit. Before earning his first full cap in 1984 he had played a major role in Rovers A defeating their then biggest rivals, Pilgrims A, in the 1983 GCA KO final.

As Rovers set about defending 160, Kinder, who had scored an important 20 batting at first wicket down, got to work with spinner Warren Barrett to undermine the Pilgrims’ reply and Tony Ayton’s men finished 36 runs adrift. Kinder took 3 for 13 from his seven overs. That year he also forced his way into the GCA XI that defeated the Jersey Cricket League.

Ahead of his maiden full inter-insular appearance a year later the Press correspondent called him ‘an obvious choice’, adding: ‘Kinder is a mean bowler in that he gives very little away. He has bowled consistently well this summer and in addition he is also a very useful lower-order batsman: Utilising him as a second change that day at Grainville was not making best use of his skills, which were always wobbling the ball about in most conditions.

A year later, when Guernsey won at the College Field, he did take the new ball and finished with 2 for 38 from 13 overs to go with a 25* when batting.

But his best showing against the old enemy was in 1994 when he took 4 for 61 from 17 overs, his haul including that of both Jersey openers, Chris Jones and Steve Carlyon. Yet that game proved to be his last in the competition, as by then a new wave of young pacemen arrived on the scene.

He also played a significant role in Guernsey’s 1990 European Cricketer Cup tournament triumph. Against Luxembourg, he bowled 6-3-8-3.

In the Malta Festival in 1993 he scored 28* and bowled 5-2-6-0 against Malta B and then in the final against Malta he bowled 10-6-9-2

In club cricket, by 1988 he had switched from Rovers to Pessimists and then headed to Optimists, for a while regularly opening the batting for the latter in the shorter form of the game. That season he struck a half-century and an undefeated 49 for Optis, who were pushing Pilgrims for the Rozel Shield.

The 2009 Cobo side who won the GCA Championship

Back row, left to right: Kris Moherndl, Jamie Nussbaumer, Stuart Le Prevost,

Luke Nussbaumer, Mike Kinder, Matt Oliver

Front: Gary Rich, Dane Mullen, Jonny Warr, TJ Ozanne, Blane Queripel

The 2009 Cobo side who won the GCA Championship.

Back row, left to right: Kris Moherndl, Jamie Nussbaumer, Stuart Le Prevost, Luke

Nussbaumer, Mike Kinder and Matt Oliver.

Front: Gary Rich, Dane Mullen, Jonny Warr, TJ Ozanne and Blane Queripel.     

A year on he was part of the Optimists side that did lift the title. He was also instrumental in their dominance of weekend cricket in the 1990s and in 1997 was voted Afternoon Player of the Year. By the late ‘Noughties’ he had found himself at Cobo and was part of their side that won the GCA KO final. Ever since, he has played a big role behind the scenes for the Cobo club.

In his veteran playing days he became a regular in the Channel Islands Over 50s side, his best being against Cornwall with 7-1-11-2 and 5 years later against the same opposition 9-2-19-3.

Mike Kinder in his coaching capacity

Jersey

C Jones c Anthony b Kinder        1

S Carlyon c Anthony b Kinder     9

T Carlyon c Headington b Rich    30

S Blampied c Webber b Kinder   20

W Jenner lbw b Kinder                40

J Carpenter c Savident b Rich     12

S Short not out                          55

C Searson c Savident b Rich       23

P Horton c Headington b Rich     16

M Reynolds run out                    0

J Giles not out                            0

Extras                                         23

TOTAL (9 wkts)                          229

Bowling: Dobson 16-2-65-0, Kinder 17-4-61-4, Anthony 12-1-44-0; Rich 10-1-43-4

Guernsey

M Webber c Searson b Giles                 4

P Vidamour c Blampied b Giles             11

L Savident c Short b Reynolds              19

R Headington c Carpenter b Giles         2

I Damarell c Short b Horton                 0

M Clapham c Short b Searson               31

G Kimber run out                                  4

G Rich c T Carlyon b Reynolds              2

R Anthony not out                                18

M Kinder c Short b Giles                       2

M Dobson b Giles                                  10

Extras                                                   10

TOTAL                                                  113

Bowling: Giles 12.5-2-31-5, Horton 12-2-23-1, Searson 10-6-17-1,

T Carlyon 7-3-18-0, Reynolds 3-1-16-2

The 1994 Inter-Insular scorecard