INTER-insular fever has struck the Channel Islands again as the Jersey women’s national cricketers welcome their Guernsey counterparts to Grainville on Sunday.
New women’s coach Darren Thomas will experience his first taste of the Channel Island rivalry, as his young and exciting side face their old rivals in a T20 format match, scheduled for a 1pm start.
Thomas said: “The girls are in a good space.
“I’ve been impressed since taking the role on and we are all thoroughly looking forward to the challenge.
“We won the fixture last year, but we will not take Guernsey lightly.
“The inter-insular obviously brings its own motivations, so we will be going into it with positive mindsets and we are hoping for a strong performance.”
Captain Chloe Greechan also commented, saying: “We’re really looking forward to this one.
“The Jersey-Guernsey rivalry is always a fixture we want to take part in, both us and the Guernsey girls.
“We have it in our hands from last year and have had the better of them in recent times, but we never let that get to our heads.
“We’re still a really young team, which feels weird considering how long we’ve all been playing together now.
“With our massive tournament in Germany just two weeks away now, we want to use Sunday as an opportunity to sharpen our match fitness and skills.
“We have been training really hard and want to put all our hard work on display.
“There’s going to be a good crowd, as there always is for the inter-insular, so we’re excited to experience that again, especially here in Jersey.
“Hopefully we can go out there, retain the trophy and put in a really solid and clinical performance.”
Elsewhere in the domestic game, RGA Walkovers are back in Belasko CI League action with an away fixture against Sarnian side Tenn Wanderers Irregulars.
After an opening round defeat to defending champions Griffins at Grainville last weekend, Joe Bevis’ Walkovers side will be looking for a positive response.
The boys in blue welcome back young fast bowler Corey Heath, who has been away studying at university and playing good standard club cricket in the UK.
They also continue to enjoy the talents of left-arm seamer Chris Carnegie, who bowled beautifully against Griffins for no reward.
Wicket-keeper Joe Dias also comes in to replace Sam Gott, who picked up an injury last weekend.
Wanderers have also had a losing start to their CI League aspirations, with back-to-back defeats against fellow Guernsey sides Cobo and Griffins.
Traditionally a decent side, they were undone by the remarkable striking abilities of Tom Nightingale in game one, with his 105 off 38 balls, and were undone again by the skilful Cobo spin attack in game two to be bowled out for just 81.
An away day is always a challenge, however, and both sides will be hoping to get their first wins of the 2024 CI League campaign.
In the local leagues, we have two massive days of T20 action, starting with the Division 1 play-offs on Sunday.
International Royals will face Walkovers 2s at St Michael’s School for the first vs second place play-off.
Old Victorians 2s are set to play St Ouen Springfield 2s at Les Quennevais in a third vs fourth play-off, and Farmers 2s will battle against Chirpy’s Chiefs at Farmers Field, for fifth vs sixth.
All three games are scheduled for a 1pm start.
Division 1 Finals Day is set for 21 July. The winner of Royals vs Walkovers 2s will qualify automatically into the final.
The loser of Royals and Walkovers will face the winner of OVs 2s and SOS 2s in an eliminator in the morning, with that winner then progressing to the final.
International Royals finished top of the league with a very impressive five wins out of five and will undoubtedly be the favourites going into the play-offs.
Walkovers 2s finished second with three wins and two losses, finishing just one point ahead of OVs 2s in third.
However, Division 2 Finals Day is already upon us.
Tomorrow at Les Quennevais, OVs 3s will face Farmers 3s in an eliminator, starting at 12pm, in an attempt to qualify into the final where the winner shall meet International Royals 2s at 3pm.
The Royals continue their outstanding season in yet another finals day, after topping Division 2 again unbeaten throughout.
Both OVs and Farmers 3s did well to hold off Walkovers Social, who just missed out on a finals day spot.
Both sides are full of youthful energy and will gain massively valuable experience from the whole day regardless of the outcome.
But it’s all up for grabs, and both sides will be hoping they can put a stop to the International Royals momentum train.
