Stuart Le Prevost

Stuart was always present at KGV as a young boy playing each evening down at the bottom of the field so it was natural that he should continue playing and eventually progress to the island side and to become captain.

Having a father, Brian, who was President of the GCA from 1995 to 2000, he had little option but to be involved in cricket. He was the Young player-of-the-year in 1994 and the GCA player-of-the-year in 1998 and 2994, whilst also being voted the Weekend player-of-the-year in 1998. He was nominated one of the GCB’s Cricketers-of-the-year in 2010 and 2011.

He made his first appearance in the inter-insular in 1997 and was capped #117. He has scored 477 runs in his 16 appearances and to show his consistency his highest score has been 53. He has also taken 7 catches and captained the island 6 times, having been made captain in 2007. He has been involved in 2 century stands, 110 in 2009 with Lee Savident and 141 in 2011 with Jeremy Frith. He has also taken part in 7 partnerships of 50.

He moved jobs from Specsavers to the GCB as groundsman so that he could be available for all island matches. Since 2005 Guernsey has been a member of the ICC and his record in European tournaments and World Cricket Leagues has been impressive. In Europe he has played 15 times with a total of 367 runs at an average of 61 and a further 129 runs in T20 matches. In WCL he has played and captained all 26 matches with 507 runs at an average of 28. He holds the record with Jeremy Frith of 182 for a partnership against Suriname in 2009. Out of all the captains in ICC competitions he is ranked 2nd having overseen 16 wins out of 26.

One of the perks of the job was a live interview with Jonathan Agnew for TMS in Feb 2012 in Abu Dhabi enroute to WCL 5 in Singapore. The Guernsey team were in the Zayed Stadium where England were playing Pakistan in an ODI match. To fill a gap during the interval Stuart was interviewed after another batsman, Sunil  Gavaskar, had also given an interview.

Stuart resigned from the captaincy of the Island team in January 2013. Rob Batiste wrote an article in the Press:

AFTER six seasons in charge and eight ICC overseas campaigns, Stuart Le Prevost’s reign as senior island cricket captain and player has come to an end. The highly-popular Cobo batsman has played an integral role as Guernsey made significant advances on the ICC calendar, but at the age of 35 and with a young family he has informed Nic Pothas, the new director of cricket, he will not be available in 2013. ‘I feel it is the right time in my life and career, with family, work and things,’ he said. ‘But it is down to lots of things really,’ he added.

Jeremy Frith, a good friend and the only player to have surpassed Le Prevost’s 1,480 runs in senior island colours at an average of 34.4, paid this tribute to the retiring captain. ‘He has been absolutely outstanding on all levels – as a captain, a player and a general bloke,’ he said. ‘He will be sorely missed in the team. ‘Stu brought together various opinions and always was happy to listen to people. He was always very good at getting knowledge from his teammates and a straightforward type of person to deal with.’

The departing captain said he had spoken at length to Pothas before announcing his decision. ‘There are a lot of new exciting youngsters coming through and it will be a nice chance for Nic to start with a new captain and do what he wants to do.’ Le Prevost has been an ever-present in the island team since making his debut in 1997. In 16 matches against Jersey he scored 477 runs and averaged a shade under 37. He took over as captain from Andy Biggins in 2007 and after two defeats in that role, led the Greens to a hat-trick of wins before losing last year’s game at Grainville.