They look a far different team than the one that lost by 132 runs to Sporting Club earlier in the season, but they will be without Tom Minty.
In the past two years Sporting Club have won the first fixture between the sides but then lost the second so history is on the old schoolboys side.
I’ve been told to lay off Johnny Gough this week but have to say what a pleasure he is to be around, what a lovely smile he has, and what a great hundred he scored last week.
Pity it was at a slower rate than the pedestrian Chris Jones.
If only he could be a bit more like his brother, Peter.
Sporting Club are a hard team to beat, they seem able to raise their game as and when they need to and swept aside championship pretenders St Ouen without breaking sweat last week.
Unfortunately, they will be missing Simon Short this week but have Justin Le Fort back.
Tim Kearsey has forced his way into the line up after his JICC batting performance in the week, and this could disrupt the line up as I would imagine he will be batting above Le Fort, Tony Carlyon, Patidar and Carpenter but not sure he’s ready to displace Matty Hague or Steve Carlyon at the top of the order.
As well as a strong batting line up they have nine players in their squad who have taken wickets this season with Matty Hague and Mark Reynolds currently being the most successful.
This match could have included a personal rematch between Vowden and Brown after their encounter last week in which Browny took 26 runs off one of Bradley’s overs.
Bradley then got his own back by scoring 60 runs (not off one of Browny’s overs though).
Bradley has decided not to take up the challenge, apparently preferring to watch football, although I would imagine Browny thinks he has other reasons.
Prediction: Sporting to break the trend and win Part II, but this time it won’t be personal.
Caesareans v St Ouen Caesareans still have a chance to qualify for the Inter Island Knock out competition, especially as OVs, who are 19 points above them with a game in hand, have to play Sporting Club, Romerils and St Ouen.
They have been a disappointment this year though, having only two victories to show from their eight matches.
One of the problems appears to be the amount of extras they have been conceding, 249 in 8 matches at an average of 31 whereas St Ouen have conceded an average of just 21 per game.
This is even more surprising as regular wide fiend Dave Gasgoine has been absent from the side.
He returns this week although another culprit Ben Kirkup is missing.
On the plus side Jules Nolli has been in good form with 12 wickets and young James Perchard is finding his feet having taken two wickets in each of his last five matches for a seasonal tally of ten at an average of 20.
He will have grown considerably in stature after taking the prize wicket of Ryan Driver twice last week.
Their batsmen have generally been below form though; Dave Buxton has been his usual consistent self and is their only batsmen in the top ten run scorers, while recent form man Dave Gorman will be missing due to Over 50s commitments, whatever they are, probably gardening or something like that.
St Ouen, on the other hand, have been in much better form although last week’s heavy defeat to Sporting Club may have taken the wind out of their sails.
They were, however, without Dave Morfee who tops the wicket-taking charts, and Richard Gimmesomemorelooroll who would top the batting charts but for the 28 people above him.
Prediction: St Ouen to win with a little extra help.
Springfield v Romerils Having lost by ten wickets to Romerils a few weeks ago it is difficult to see Springfield having any chance here.
These matches, however, can be the stuff folklore is made of.
In years to come the likes of Suthan, Evans, Canham, Lesbirel, and Parker could be sitting in an Alderney bar on the Springfield tour dragging up their hazy recollections about this very day.
Phil Evans may remember it as the day Springfield beat Romerils and then watched Wales beat Portugal in the world cup.
Alan Lesbirel and Richard Parker may remember it as the day Springfield beat Romerils and then watched Guernsey beat Portugal in the world cup, and Pete Canham may remember it as the day they had cheese and pickle, ham and mustard, tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches, followed by a nice bit of Battenberg.
As for Suthan, well, it’s a non starter; I mean what are the chances of Sri Lanka beating anyone at any sport.
I really want Springfield to win a game, though obviously not this one, but time is running out again.
They will see their best chance of victory in the match next week against Caesareans, as they play Sporting Club in the final match.
Romerils comfortably beat a strongish looking Caesareans side last week and most of their players are in some sort of form.
Peter Scott always peaks at this time of year and is doing so again and Sean Billson has just taken six wickets in a JICC match, returning with much better figures than any of the Jersey team who had played the same team a couple of days before.
“”Billson for Jersey!”” “”But he’s South African.”” “”OK, Billson for Guernsey!”” Norah, whose 30 per cent strike rate is below her usual high standards, doesn’t look like increasing it as she has gone for Springfield this week.
Her method of selection? Letter association.
She says she is seeing the letter S everywhere at the moment.
There’s sunshine, soccer, and whatever it is she spends most of her time sitting at her desk thinking and smiling about.
Sure enough Springfield does have a load of S in it, there’s Suthan Selvachandran and Peter Canham for example.
Prediction: Scorer says super Springfield to make it a day to remember, for one reason or another.
