75-71 Top cricketers

75 – Tim Duke

ARRIVED in the lsland in the early ‘Noughties’ and his qualities as former Essex county seconds player was soon very evident and very good news for the Pessimists and Wanderers clubs at the time and Rovers later. Capable of bowling fairly swiftly and a fine batsman, the former Saffron Walden club player made his Guernsey debut in 2003 and was to become a fixture in a dominant Sarnian side for the next seven years.

‘I was always a bowler who thought he could bat a bit, so I worked at it more and my batting has come on in leaps and bounds,’ he said to the Press ahead of his Island debut 18 years ago. In club cricket that year he scored heavily for Pessimists in Division One and Wanderers at weekends. One such weekend he hit a superb undefeated 131 off the Cobo attack. His inter-insular debut was a low-key one – two runs at No. 7 and just two wicket-less overs – and a year later he picked up a duck in opening with Richard Headington. By 2006 he was opening the bowling and picking up the prime Jersey wickets of Peter Gough and Steve Carlyon. There was also a handy cameo down the order.

Voted Guernsey player of the year and weekend player of the year in 2003, and still playing very effectively as a batsman today. Only last week scored a fine undefeated 65, showing the experience gained from his four Essex seconds matches and two for Cambridgeshire.

74 – Andy Creed

ONE half – the taller half – of surely the most feared opening domestic bowling partnership Guernsey has ever seen. From the mid-1970s and into the early 80s the names ‘Creed and Dobson – the mean-machine’ had batsmen quaking at their knees, particularly those who batted down the order.

On the bouncy Osmond Priaulx Field plastic mat, laid on concrete, the Rovers duo had batsmen hopping about, ducking desperately and fishing in front of their noses, as the duo tried to out-do one another. In those non-restrictive days, Rovers’ skipper Ricky Mills could simply allow the two free rein and they delivered until such time as Creed, awarded the young cricketer of the year award in 1975, headed to the emerging Pilgrims and Dobson to Optimists. From a short run and with a whirl of arms as he arrived at the crease, ‘Creedy’ could generate steep bounce, as well as pace. He could also swing the bat effectively down the order and in the 1980 GCA KO final hit a quick 20 having already picked up 3 for 6 against Pessimists. His short run and strength allowed him to bowl long spells and on his full Island debut in 1980 took 3 for 24 from 15 overs.

His best bowling spell came in 1982 when he and Warren Barrett were both in great form as Rovers beat Pilgrims by 104 runs in a Division One Afternoon League match at Les Varendes . Creed took all 10 Pilgrims’ wickets to fall as they were dismissed for 71 in reply to Rovers 175 for five which included an innings of 111 from Barrett. Creed’s final bowling were 10 for 17 from his overs with 4 caught and six of his victims were bowled!

Rovers

J Mountford c Stuckey b Lihou              22

W Barrett c Peatfield b Webb                111

G Kimber b Smith b Hearse                  0

R Mills c & b Lihou                                7

R Kimber c Ayton b Webb                     21

J Henry not out                                    7

Extras                                                  7

Total                                                     175 (for 5 wickets)

Bowling:

Stuckey 5-0-30-0; Lihou 15-2-52-2; Hearse 13-3-32-1; Webb 5.5-0-24-2; Peatfield 4-0-30-0

Pilgrims

R Martel b Creed                                  7

G Rabey b Creed                                  5

P Wakeford c Mills b Creed                   0

G Smith b Creed                                   2

A Ayton b Creed                                   0

T Peatfield b Creed                               8

A Hearse b Creed                                 31

D Piesing c Strappini b Creed               0

P Webb c Henry b Creed                       0

G Stuckey c Mountford b Creed            6

J Lihou not out                                     6

Extras                                                   6

Total                                                     71

Bowling:

Creed           14.3-8-17-10; Scott 6-2-8-0; Mills 6-0-25-0; Henry 3-1-15-0

73 – George Sandercock

PROBABLY Guernsey’s outstanding all-round player of the immediate post-Occupation years. From 1948 to the early 1950s he was a key man in Optimists’ successes and which challenged the mighty Pessimists for the Division One title.

Consistently took wickets and scored well from the middle order and appeared in the very first full Guernsey-Jersey That day he scored 27 at No. 7 and 1 for 35 in 13 overs, but two years earlier he had ripped through the JICC batting in the two main clubs’ annual match, taking 8 for 12, his second eight-wicket haul of the summer, following on from his 8 for 27 against Pessimists. Clearly there was no better all-round cricketer in Guernsey for a short time and in his post-war review of island cricket just after the war, Bill Druce specifically mentions Sandercock who ‘loved bowling and batting, batting and bowling’.

72 – Julian Wood

BANKING brought this quiet Midlander to the island for a few years in the mid-1980s and it was immediately obvious he could bat for long periods, which was just what Guernsey needed. Very correct in technique and difficult to prise out, Taverners were the club to first benefit from his consistent run scoring, helping them to the 1984 and 1985 GCA KO finals, both which were lost to a strong Pilgrims team. Wood scored good runs in both games and his gentle seamers claimed three wickets in the second game, but he then joined the quickly emerging Tortevites side.

On his Island debut in 1982, his unbeaten 54 at No. 3 saw Guernsey home at Grainville.

There was another useful 19 two years later.  

71 – Will Peatfield

GUERNSEY’S cricketer of the year in both 2018 and 2019, Peatfield has emerged into a fine all-round player that the selectors had hoped he would become when introduced into the set-up in 2012. As yet his recent maturity into a genuine all-rounder had not produced strong results against Jersey, but in domestic terms he has played integral roles in Guernsey and Channel Islands success for Argylls – later Miton Optimal – and Cobo. He has added focus to his batting and the result has been a string of big scores, his recent Weekend League century in a losing cause a prime example of that. Capable of bowling at a very good pace and generating bounce, Peatfield is not the finished article. But there is a sense and expectation that in a Covid-free world of ICC international cricket, he will be a key component for Guernsey for years to come.