At Grainville on Saturday, an undefeated 116-run second-wicket partnership between opener Ed Kean and Dom Blampied steered the hosts to victory in 15.1 of their allotted 45 overs – after fellow opener Matt Daubeney was out in the second over.
Kean and Blampied made batting look easy as Kean finished two runs short of a half century while Blampied hit an unbeaten 62.
St Ouen’s innings concluded one minute under the hour with Kean, who was dropped twice, hitting eight boundaries and Blampied 11 fours and a six.
Blampied’s 50 came off 28 balls.
All ten Wanderers dismissals fell to catches.
‘It was a good win,’ said St Ouen Springfield captain Dom Blampied.
‘They were obviously not at full strength with a couple of players missing, but you’ve still got to beat what you’ve got in front of you.
‘It was a convincing victory and if the league gets tight at the end and is decided on run-rate, then we’ve had two good wins and that helps our net run-rate.
‘Catches win matches and we’ve done really well in that respect today.
‘Ben Manser was excellent today, as he has been all season.
‘He was fantastic in our winning T20 campaign, he bowled really well and when we’ve needed him he has delivered – like he has done again today.
‘Ed [Kean] and I attacked the target hard and it was enjoyable putting on a good partnership.’
Wanderers skipper Toby Belton said: ‘It’s a disappointing result for us, we got off to a decent start despite Anthony Kay bowling very well for them at the front.
‘We were 60-odd for two and quite happy looking to post a total of around 180 to 200 if we batted well, but the middle order collapsed and 122 was never going to be enough to defend.
‘St Ouen came out and played their shots and it went for them.
‘Goughy [Peter Gough] held a couple of stunning catches for them as well and it was one of those days where it did not go our way in the field.’
Wanderers won the toss and elected to bat and it looked a good decision as Belton and Ben Wentzel scored 13 runs off Jonny Best’s opening over.
Best was unlucky as a couple of edged chances did not carry to the slips while Anthony Kay, at the other end, was getting the odd ball to pop up.’
Kay got the first Wanderers wicket as Wentzel guided the ball to backward point where Blampied took a good catch.
Best got rewarded as Belton edged a catch to wicketkeeper Ed Loader leaving Wanderers on 52 for two after 15 overs.
Martel departed after offering a simple catch back to Kay and with Best and Kay bowling out their nine overs each, the visitors moved on to 64 for three off 18.
Young Toby Clark, a medium-pacer, and Ben Manser, a left-arm around the wicket spinner, were introduced and Clark went for ten in his first over while Manser delivered a maiden.
Clark then took two wickets in three balls, both excellent catches by Gough and Kay, to dismiss Gashirai Masvikeni and Charlie Vorster respectively.
Gough, who looked to have misjudged the flight of the ball, did well to make up a fair bit of ground to gain his dismissal while Kay, at mid-on, was stumbling backwards when he put up is right hand to gather the ball cleanly.
Gough then took another stunner, diving forward at full-stretch, to dismiss Waleed Jami, off Manser, leaving Wanderers reeling at 80 for six in the 24th over.
Manser then had Ryan Harris caught behind by Loader leaving the bowler with figures of three wickets for two runs off four overs – three of them maidens.
Wanderers continued to lose wickets to catches, two to Ed Kean in the covers and another fine catch at slip by Ryan Driver, who moved to his right to capture Dave Piesing.
Mark Jefferies eventually ran out of partners as Wanderers were bowled out for 122 in 42.3 overs.
Jefferies top-scored with an undefeated 25 runs having batted patiently for 75 minutes while facing 59 balls.
- Full results inside Monday’s JEP
