Needing four runs to win with five balls remaining, David Hearse, who had come in to bat at No 9, slugged the ball to the boundary behind him and Jersey were beaten.
Captain Chris Searson’s prophetic words at the lunch interval had come to fruition.
‘After 25 overs I would have liked a few more runs,’ he said.
By then they were 73 for four, and although Jersey went on to make 213 in their 50 overs, with Dave Buxton scoring 54 and Chris Searson 50 not out, the run rate they set Guernsey was always gettable, even when the opposition lost their first three batsmen in double quick time.
Barry Middleton bowled economically for his two wickets, conceding only 24 runs in ten overs, but in Gary Tapp Guernsey had a match-winner and, inevitably, a man of the match.
His 91 runs after Guernsey had been behind the run rate early on made all the difference.
After that, it was a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’.
So, with five overs to go and 29 runs required, Guernsey accelerated and despite one near run-out, one near leg before and a flukey four, when the batsman had no idea where the ball was going, the visitors took the match and the trophy.
‘Gary’s innings was the turning point,’ said Wakeford, who made 28 runs before being bowled by Mark Saralis.
‘And Jersey did well to get to 213 after such a poor start.
But we bat all the way down the line.
This was a third win in a row under my captainship.
We must be doing something right.’ At the start of Guernsey’s innings, when Middleton and Mark Reynolds had taken the first three batsmen’s wickets for less than 30 runs, it looked as if Jersey could make their modest score a respectable one, but within the next hour Tapp showed what a good wicket this really was, by scoring ones and twos to begin with and then a host of fours before he was out, bowled by Reynolds.
With wickets and time in hand, Guernsey then moved inexorably to their 214 target and despite Willie Webbe’s gallant effort, in taking Dave Peising’s wicket, caught and bowled, for nought, and some economical bowling towards the end from Searson, the contest had effectively been lost as far back as 1.30 pm in a game that was to run to 6 pm.
Seventy-three for four after 25 overs was never going to be good enough against a pretty decent Guernsey team.
