REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2009

Under 10

This year’s Under 10 Island squad had the longest fixture schedule of any Under 10 team so far, with 11 fixtures in total. They were against DenmeadSchool, Jersey, a tour of South England and 5 games locally against Sussex.

All but 2 of the players in this year’s team were involved in the Under 10 squad from 2008 and so lacked experience at county standard. Despite a tough start to the season against DenmeadSchool, the team managed to win the inaugural U10 inter-insular match at Port Soif, with Rory Betley carrying his bat for 51, making him the youngest half-centurion in Guernsey squad history.

With limited experience within the squad, the fixtures in England and against Sussex were always going to be tough matches and a massive learning curve for the team. Also, being a young team meant that the focus for the tour was experience against County teams. Guernsey managed to complete 2 out of the 4 tour matches and almost completed a third match against the full Sussex U10 team, losing the other game and a bit to the weather. Despite losing each game, the team progressed through the week, with each aspect of the game; fielding, batting and bowling, all improving in each match.

Guernsey’s U10’s and U11’s were visited by the full Sussex U10 team, playing 2 one-day matches, a mixed team game and a 2-day match, to help further both teams’ development. The 2 one-day matches were tough experiences, with Sussex winning on both occasions with thorough performances with the bat compared to the Guernsey team. The 2-day match was split into 5 innings, with Guernsey batting 1st, 3rd and 5th and Sussex batting 2nd and 4th. A poor display with the bat in the 3rd innings by Guernsey helped Sussex set 100 runs to win in 30 overs in the final innings. With 1 wicket in hand and 4 runs needed off 4 balls, William Thompson scored a single to get Tom Veillard on strike who waited for his chance and hit the final ball of the game for 4 to win a very exciting game.

Numerous players in the squad showed moments of quality throughout the season, however the key for all the players is to produce more consistent performances at a higher standard by having a plan for bowling, determination in the field and most importantly, develop an understanding of when to attack and defend. Hopefully, this team will work hard throughout the winter and show big improvements for 2010.

Under 11

Despite a tough season for all of Guernsey’s age group squads, the Under 11 team finished with 6 victories in their season, with an impressive start to the summer. The squad started with a victory over regular visitors IpswichSchool by 35 runs and a week later departed for their tour of Hampshire, playing against the Isle of Wight, New Forest, South Wiltshire and Dorset.

The team managed to win against the Isle of Wight and South Wiltshire along with losses to Dorset and disappointingly, the New Forest. The team performed well with the bat and ball but failed to take their chances in the field, dropping numerous catches and allowing teams to get away from them. However, the team came away with decent performances, plenty of positives and a good team spirit.

Guernsey faced Jersey in the annual Inter-Insular match in Jersey at VictoriaCollege. Guernsey started well with Fazakerley and Stokes removing Furness & Jenner with just 14 scored. However, Guernsey failed to take their chances again and allowed Jersey to score 179 in their 40 overs, taking only 2 more wickets in the remaining overs. Guernsey lost early wickets in their reply but Nightingale (55), Stokes (17) & Wilson (21) helped get Guernsey within striking distance. However, Guernsey finished 32 runs short.

Guernsey had a chance of revenge during the local U11 festival, but despite another strong start, Jersey kept wickets in hand and posted 185 in their overs, thanks to Jenner (65). Guernsey performed better with the bat this time, Nightingale (62) and Fazakerley (31) helping Guernsey get close, but again fell short, by just 8 runs. Against East Devon, Guernsey made a solid start, but only batted 27 of their 40 overs, posting 120 instead of 180+. The team bowled and fielded well, but a 9th wicket partnership nearly won East Devon the game. However, a great catch from Nightingale at point off Stokes’ bowling helped win the game by 8 runs. Batting first against Dorset, Guernsey failed to set a testing target, scoring only 89. Dorset finished the game with 4 wickets in hand thanks to 31 by Morgan.

Key to the team’s success for the future is to consistently bat their overs with more players contributing with scores and being able to take their catches regularly. If players can eliminate their complacency as well, the team, and any new additions, have the opportunity to be very successful and enjoying their cricket throughout the future.

Jonathan Orme

Under 12

This year’s Under 12 programme was reduced to 5 representative fixtures, with 1 match against Jersey in the annual Inter-Insular and the inaugural tour to Bryanston in Dorset.

In previous years, the crop of cricketers at this age group have struggled to put together solid batting performances and register good scores. This year had a similar story with the bat, but the team again showed excellent cohesion with the ball and in the field, which helped to pressurise their opponents and turn low scores into competitive matches.

Last year, the team played Jersey twice, both in low scoring matches but with a win for both teams. This year was a considerably low scoring game, with just over 100 runs scored between both teams for the loss of 18 wickets in total. Guernsey batting first at the College Field struggled to push the score on with wickets constantly tumbling and were eventually bowled out for 56. Jersey lost early wickets but were going well with Hickling and Harris, until a collapse saw them lose 5 quick wickets, 4 of them thanks to Jack Ingrouille. However, it wasn’t enough as Jersey won the match by 2 wickets.

The team visited BryanstonSchool for their summer tour, with scheduled matches against Dorset, Wiltshire and Jersey, as well as a 20/20 day. Sadly, the weather put paid to the match against Jersey and the 20/20 day. The matches were contested over 90 overs, with the first team allowed to bat a max of 47 overs and the other team having the remaining overs to score the runs.

In their first match, Guernsey put pressure on Wiltshire with a good bowling and fielding performance and with the spinners especially effective. Needing 139 from 43 overs to win, Guernsey struggled to bat their overs and were bowled out for 107 with 5 overs to spare. The match against Dorset had slightly reduced overs due to rain, but Guernsey batted their full 45 overs to score 123 for 9. Guernsey bowled and fielded well again but couldn’t take all 4 wickets needed to win the match in 42 overs. Dorset finished on 98 for 6 in their 42 overs, resulting in a draw.

This current team have shown they can field and bowl extremely well most times, however without a good score to defend, more games will be lost than won. It is the key for this team to progress and turn into a good batting side for the future.

Under 13

The results of the 2009 season were on the whole disappointing, but it is very important with the development of both teams and individuals that you look for the “positives” and things that you can learn from and, despite the results, there were plenty of these. The boys have continued to progress and I am confident this team will produce many good cricketers for Guernsey cricket in future years.

If the results are looked at closely, it can be seen that many of the games were lost by the narrowest of margins. It was an inability to score enough runs (rather than our bowling or fielding) which ultimately cost us these games, and only a relatively small improvement could have resulted in a totally different playing record. My main observations are as follows:

1. Due mainly to the weather conditions making life difficult for the groundsmen, we often found ourselves batting on wickets that were not very easy to score on. We showed on better batting tracks against Jersey and also against Buckinghamshire that we were capable of posting totals in excess of 200, but we couldn’t seem to cope with less easy tracks.

2. Another factor was that the weather had resulted in grounds with lush and slow outfields. It was noticeable that we lacked the ability to pierce the infield, or to score boundaries, unless we had a faster out field. This is partly attributable to the boys lacking in size and physical presence, but more so it is a technical point that we should try and work on.

3. I am convinced there were at least a couple of games we could have won with better running between the wickets. During the season we had undertaken quite a lot of drills to improve our backing up, calling and running between the wickets so it was disappointing that some of the boys were unable, or unwilling, to put this into practice. It is something that needs to be improved quickly because it often makes the difference between winning and losing.

Despite losing, the batting displays against Jersey at Victoria and against Buckinghamshire at KGV were highlights of the season. Against Jersey we posted over 200 for the loss of only 4 wickets. Against Buckinghamshire, we just failed to chase down 203 when we fell 7 runs short. Individually there were lots of encouraging signs that all of the boys are progressing well. James Wilkes-Green and Matt Stokes both scored 50’s during the season, and Josh Butler finished the season on a high with a good 40 against Buckinghamshire.

Jordan Martel at times showed what a handful he can be with his pace and if his consistency continues to progress, he will soon be causing problems for the senior cricketers. Matt Stokes often shared the new ball and bowled consistently at a good pace, but often without getting the rewards he deserved.

We had a good back up of seam bowling, although it was often the spin bowling of James Wilkes-Green and Tom Veillard who gave us control.

There were lots of good things to come out of the season. The boys have developed a good team spirit and were a pleasure to coach. The good attitudes of the boys will really help them to develop their cricket in the next few years.

Jonathan Orme U12 and Tim Belton U13

U15
Huge promise was shown by the U15’s but they never quite turned it in to a consistent run of form.

A keenly fought weekend of cricket against New Forest saw us win one and lose one. Nick Waldron and Olly Tapp put on almost a hundred for the first wicket as Guernsey won the second match by 7 wickets with more than 10 overs remaining.

In Inter-Insulars the U15’s lost in Jersey whilst the U14’s won a game that looked to be going down to the wire at College Field. Having bowled well to restrict Jersey to 165 in 45 overs, Guernsey never managed to get a partnership going and despite a defiant 56 from Zac Damarell fell well short, all out for 138. The U14’s managed 164 in 40 overs and bowled Jersey out for 141 having been 69 for 1. Spinners, Kirk, Wilkes-Green, Hutchinson and Nightingale the key to Guernsey’s success.

At the European U15 Division 1 tournament in Dundee, we came so close but never seemed to quite get over the line and eventually finished 5th when with a little bit more luck and a little bit more experience we could have finished in the top 3. Nick Waldron again batted well scoring a fluent 80 against Scotland off 110 balls with Joe Alvarez making 77 against Denmark.

Robert Woodhard continued his impressive year and was ably supported by Ben Cuddihee.

Despite the results there were some good individual performances which show great promise for the future of Guernsey cricket.