Inter Insular #26 1977

The match was played at College Field, Guernsey
on Sunday 31st July 1977
for the Players Gold Leaf Trophy
Umpires R G Clayton (Guernsey) and Dr R L Osment (Jersey)
Scorers R Gauvain (Guernsey) and H W Hall (Jersey)
Guernsey won toss and elected to bat
Match drawn

Guernsey innings    RunsBallsMins4s6sSR Jersey bowlingOvMdnRunsWktsWNbSRER
P L Le CocqcRobsonbMiddleton9-3520Middleton1342741319.52.1
W E R BarrettbRobson27-11440Allott13.332341019.951.7
R WinstonecHolmesbMiddleton2-800Robson11337200333.4
H J M DaveycFauxbAllott9-2600Stuckey104250102.5
*R W MillsbAllott2-600
M J MechembRobson5-610
H A J MountfordbAllott31-11640
R E H AnthonylbwbMiddleton20-5640
+†M A FooksbMiddleton4-610
P Lawlornotout3-2500
M DobsonbAllott0-100
Extras (b4, lb1, w6, nb3)14
Total (in 47.3 overs)126
Fall of wickets
1-21(Le Cocq),2-27(Winstone),3-44(Davey),4-50(Mills),5-55(Mechem),5-68(Barrett),7-100(Anthony),8-106(Fooks),9-126(Mountford),10-126(Dobson)

Jersey innings    RunsBallsMins4s6sSR Guernsey bowlingOvMdnRunsWktsWNbSRER
G MorriscFooksbLe Cocq0-100Le Cocq16831400241.9
P OsmentbBarrett22-6310Lawlor13517100781.3
+†J HolmesbLe Cocq0-700Barrett6027100364.5
N FagebLawlor4-310Dobson201026300401.3
D FauxbDobson30-9820Winstone30120004.0
*M J WeaverbDobson23-4330
J PoyntoncFooksbLe Cocq4-3300
P StuckeylbwbDobson8-4500
P RobsonbLe Cocq18-2630
R Allottnotout4-2200
B Middletonnotout0-1400
Extras (b0, lb2, w0, nb0)2
Total (for 9 wickets in 58 overs)115
Fall of wickets
1-0(Morris),2-0(Holmes),3-5(Faux),4-44(Osment),5-79(Weaver),6-80(Faux),7-88(Poynton),8-106(Stuckey),9-114(Robson)

PREVIEW
Press
‘A draw will be good result for Guernsey’ by Rob Batiste

Eleven of the best Island cricketers will walk out on to the College Field tomorrow determined to avenge the heavy defeat inflicted on the GCA team earlier this month by the JCL in Jersey, by beating their Jersey counterparts in this season’s inter-insular cricket match which starts at 11am.
The Guernsey team is led, once again, by Ricky Mills and he and the rest of the team have over the past week met for an arduous practice session and a very useful warm-up match. Last Sunday morning the side met at the College Field for a two hour stint which included hectic batting and bowling practice plus coaching from Robin Winstone.
Guernsey will have great difficulty in defeating the now supremely confident Jersey team which has improved 100 per cent since the reign of captain Mike Weaver began. He has built a tremendous team spirit within the side and has been helped greatly by the arrival of star Englishmen Glen Morris, John Holmes and Barry Middleton. It will be Middleton and his ‘new-ball’ partner Richard Allott who will pose the biggest threat to the Guernsey team who will undoubtedly miss the extrovert talents of Alan Lewis.
Middleton and Allott who both play for Springfield in their weekend league are probably the fastest and most hostile pair of bowlers Jersey have fielded since the series began. For this reason the Guernsey selectors opted for determined batsmen who are willing to stand and be hit by these two bowlers rather than the more fluent batsmen.
The Guernsey batting line-up poses a problem for Mills. It is probable that Pierre Le Cocq, who is in such tremendous form with the bat, will open the innings. His partner is anybody’s guess because Mills has the choice of Winstone, Barrett, Mechem, Mountford, Davey or himself. The likely choice is Warren Barrett, the top run scorer in Guernsey this season with 910 runs. Both he and Le Cocq have proved this season that they are our best batsmen. In my view these two players hold the key to the match. Guernsey’s hopes of amassing a large total depends on them and their form with the ball is also critical. The remainder of the batsmen have struggled to find their form and apart from Mick Mechem have failed to show anything like their normal form.
On the bowling front it seems that Peter Lawlor will head the attack with Le Cocq purely for the reason that he bowls straight and makes the batsmen play. This is why he was selected. The stock bowlers will be Miles Dobson and Ralph Anthony and a lot of responsibility lies on their shoulders. All the bowlers will have to produce their best form if we are to have any chance at all, for batsmen of the calibre of Holmes and Morris are sure to punish bad bowling.
The Jersey batting line-up on paper looks very strong with Peter Osment and Morris likely candidates to open the innings and Holmes, John Poynton, Norman Fage, Don Faux and Mike Weaver completing the first seven. There are three newcomers to inter-insular cricket in the Jersey side, Glen Morris (we know how good he is), Paul Robson and Peter Stuckey. Robson is an all-rounder who bats well and I am told he is very accurate and fiery medium-pace stock bowler along with the other ‘new boy’ Stuckey.
Stuckey played eight years of Minor County cricket with Dorset before he went to Jersey and his medium pace bowling has proved very successful throughout this season. On the whole the Jersey side on paper looks far stronger than Guernsey’s but I believe that the sheer determination of the Guernsey lads will be just enough to force a draw, although a Jersey win would not surprise me at all.

Miles Dobson

[Robin Winstone played 31 times for Oxfordshire between 1956 and 1972]

[PD Stuckey was born in Bournemouth on 18th March 1940 and played 41 times for Dorset between 1964 and 1972. He opened the bowling and took 110 wickets, his best being 6 for 24 against Devon. He was also economical with figures such as 20-10-24-1 against Berkshire and 21-11-30-5 against Devon and his best of 26-14-23-4 also against Devon. He played against RA Winstone on several matches but never took his wicket].

Post       Bill Custard
Hopes running high for Jersey to beat Guernsey
The Jersey team for Sunday has real quality possibly the only real criticism to be levelled is that it is without a real spinner.
With a true track and both sides strong in batting it will be odds-on a drawn game on Sunday but the Jersey attack has the penetration which can be the decisive factor, backed up so vitally by keen and enthusiastic fielding. Yes, it’s all very intriguing and adds up to a fine game in prospect.

M Fooks   P Lawlor   J Mountford  M Dobson  P Le Cocq   H Davey

R Anthony  M Mechem  R Mills  W Barrett  R Winstone

MATCH
Press on Monday 1 August
‘Dobson stars in thrilling draw’ by Rob Batiste

The inter-island cricket match at sun-baked College Field yesterday will surely go on record, and in spectators’ memories, as the greatest game between the two islands since the series began.
A draw was a fitting result to a match that swung so often that you would have needed a scorecard to record the number of times spectators changed their minds as to what the result would be.
Guernsey, batting first on a placid wicket, could only manage a below-average score of 126 all out, and a Jersey win seemed certain. But Jersey’s start to their innings will surely be the worst to be suffered since the competition began, losing their first two wickets without a run being scored, and a third with the score at five.
Jersey opened with the ever-present Peter Osment and their new ‘star batsman’ Glen Morris and the latter was sensationally sent back to the pavilion with the very first delivery of the innings – caught behind the stumps by ‘keeper Mick Fooks off Pierre Le Cocq. The dismissal of Morris brought the brilliant John Holmes to the crease and midway through Le Cocq’s second over he played over a full-pitched delivery and was bowled for nought.
The first runs from the bat came from the first ball of Peter Lawlor’s second over when new batsman Norman Fage dispatched the ball to mid-wicket boundary for four. Fage confidently played the following five deliveries, but completely misjudged the last ball of the over which pitched outside the line of the off-stump, cut back and bowled him.
A sensational win for, Guernsey now looked on the cards, but Osment and Don Faux stemmed the flow of wickets and took the score along to 44, before Osment was bowled by Warren Barrett when attempting to pull to mid-wicket for 22.

Pete Lawlor in action                                                     GEP


The Guernsey bowlers were now looking for another breakthrough, but Faux and Jersey captain, Mike Weaver, denied them and slowly picked up vital runs.
Miles Dobson was bowling superbly at the Rue a l’Or end and continually gave the batsmen something to think about. He stopped the flow of runs, but the batsmen appeared to have no difficulty with Barrett at the pavilion end.
The score had moved to 79 when the pendulum swung once more in Guernsey’s favour; Dobson being rewarded for his superb performance by bowling Weaver for 23. Jersey suffered a further setback when Dobson bowled the solid Faux with the first delivery of his next over with the score on 80.
With the final 20 overs to be bowled Jersey still needed 47 runs to win with four wickets in hand. They were still favourites to win.
The large crowd was sent into delirium again eight runs later when John Poynton attempted to hook Le Cocq but only succeeded in lobbing the ball into the safe hands of Mick Fooks – Jersey were seven wickets down!
The fall of Poynton brought together Peter Stuckey and Paul Robson, and the latter looked like winning the game for Jersey. The left-hander played some fine off-drives, which resulted in three boundaries. Jersey needed 23 runs for victory, with six overs left, when Dobson struck again, trapping Stuckey ‘leg before’ for eight.
The game was still in the balance when 10th man Richard Allott came to the crease, for the way Robson was playing it seemed he would win the game on his own. But, luckily for Guernsey, Robson was the ninth man out when he stepped back to give himself room to cut Le Cocq, missed, and was bowled for 18.
From then on only two results seemed possible – a draw or a Guernsey win. The arrival of last man Middleton signalled the end of the run-chase for Jersey. With the superb bowling of Dobson and Le Cocq it was on the cards that, with four overs remaining, Guernsey would win. But credit to the last pair who survived an ultra-attacking field, and good bowling, to give Jersey a nail-biting draw.

Guernsey gather round but could not prise out the last batsmen


Peter Lawlor, playing his first match for Guernsey, and Pierre Le Cocq bowled well throughout, but were overshadowed by Dobson’s figures of 20 overs, 10 maidens, three for 26, which was a brilliant performance from the young Rover’s bowler.
Previous to all this excitement of the Jersey innings Guernsey captain Ricky Mills had won the toss and elected to bat. Warren Barrett and Le Cocq opened and were not troubled by the early overs of Middleton and Allott, although during this time Barrett pulled a calf muscle and required a runner. The opening pair carried the score to 21 before Le Cocq miss-hooked a Middleton delivery and was caught at forward by Paul Robson for nine.
Robin Winstone made two when he received a good ball from Middleton and was caught behind by ‘keeper Holmes, with the score at 27 for two.
It was now a matter of who could stay with the impressive-looking Barrett, but Henry Davey, Ricky Mills and Mick Mechem all went cheaply and Guernsey were 55 for five.
Barrett had made 27 when he was bowled by medium-pacer Robson with the score at 68, and it seemed Guernsey would not reach 100. But batsmen John Mountford and Ralph Anthony got their heads down, and it was during their partnership of 32 that the crowd saw the best shots of the day from the flashing bat of Anthony. He produced two superb cuts through the covers and a splendid cover drive before he was lbw to Middleton for 20, with the score on 100.
Mountford continued to bat soundly and was the ninth man out when he was bowled by Allott for the top score of the day 31, and the very next delivery Guernsey were all pout when Dobson’s stumps were sent flying.
Summing up, it was the marvellous bowling of both sides which made it a great game, the performance of Dobson being the highlight.

Jersey Post        Bill Custard
The premier Channel Island cricket match of the season between Jersey and Guernsey played yesterday in ideal sunny weather and in the glorious and spacious setting of the College Field in Guernsey was drawn. It was a most absorbing duel with fortunes fluctuating throughout in a most tantalising manner culminating in an extremely tense finish.
It was a game that Jersey should have won but were pleased in the end to have drawn and one which Guernsey were satisfied to have kept their unbeaten record in the series over a long period of years. It was a splendid game.

REVIEW
‘Glad I was wrong’ by Rob Batiste

I’m glad to say that my pre-match prediction of a Guernsey defeat went completely wrong at the College Field last Sunday when the determined Guernsey team came back from the brink of defeat to nearly win a thrilling match against jersey.
The game will go down as probably the greatest in inter-insular history and it provided the large crowd with plenty of interesting cricket.
The general opinion of the spectators at the lunch break was that Guernsey who then stood at 68 for six had absolutely no chance of victory or even a draw and even when they fought back to 126 all out the opinion was very much the same.
The Jersey strength this year was that they had two excellent batsmen in Glen Morris and John Holmes but again the unexpected happened when they were both dismissed without scoring a run. With Jersey three wickets down and only five runs on the board the atmosphere at the beautifully sun-baked College Field changed from utter disillusion to amazement with the switch in Guernsey fortunes. From then on as every Jersey wicket went down the shouts of sheer delight increased in volume and when wickets were not falling a complete hush fell over the ground. You could nearly cut the tension that buzzed around the ground as the game came towards a finish and at the end the crowd went home knowing they had seen a great game of cricket.
The performances of John Mountford and Peter Lawlor must have satisfied the selectors who came under a great deal of criticism from people who thought they should not have been selected. Mountford produced probably his best performance with the bat this season and fully justified his selection with a gritty innings of 31 which turned out to be the top score of the game. Lawlor’s inclusion in the team was due to his accuracy with the new ball and he did just what he was selected for – bowling a good length and line and gaining a reward for his efforts by dismissing Norman Fage. Apart from Mountford and a short but glorious innings from Ralph Anthony the rest of the Guernsey batting failed against some quick, accurate bowling from Allott, Middleton and Robson.
On the bowling front for Guernsey Le Cocq and Lawlor bowled well throughout but their efforts were overshadowed by Miles Dobson’s performance. Dobson bowled an incredible 20-over stint in which he tied the batsmen down, grabbed three vital wickets and was still bowling as fast and as accurately at the end as when he started his marathon spell. In the end it was a moral victory for Guernsey and they now remain unbeaten in inter-island matches for at least seven years.