On this day 50 years ago Guernsey recorded a famous
6-4 Muratti final victory over Jersey at the Track.
Nick Mollet looked back at the 10-goal thriller and spoke to Guernsey stalwart Lloyd Duquemin, who has special memories of the match, as it provided him with his only winners’ medal in seven finals IT still sparkles in the sunlight and the Muratti winner’s medal is as shiny today as it was 50 years ago when Lloyd Duquemin was presented with it.
He earned it as a member of a Guernsey team which went into the match as underdogs and beat Jersey 6-4 in the highest scoring final.
It was his second cap and the only time he finished on the winning team. He still treasures it today.
‘To me it’s very valuable. I would never get rid of that one. It means everything,’ he said at The Track, the venue for his 90 minutes of glory.
‘It was my first and only senior medal playing for Guernsey. It’s still in good nick and I’m very proud,’ said the 73-year-old, who played all his club football for Northerners.
‘That took a lot of work and time and training hard. It means as much to me now as 50 years ago. It’s priceless to me after playing and working so hard for it. It’s not very big, but it means a lot.’
He had no problems recalling the historic game.
‘We were cruising at 6-1, then all of a sudden they had a 20-minute burst and we were getting hammered. But we weathered the storm and I remember Vince Tostevin telling me in patois ‘Ch’st not coupe’ which means ‘this is our cup’.
‘We were the underdogs and the Press gave us no chance,’ he said.
‘It’s one of those games we were so far ahead and we thought we were coasting. In those days there were no subs and you had to sort yourselves out. They were scoring late in the game and the last 10 minutes were like half an hour,’ he said.
‘You thought: ﾓAre we going to do it?ﾔ
‘It was a great relief. When you get that medal in your hand it’s like an FA Cup Final to us. It’s our final and you are the champions. It was a wonderful feeling to me,’ said Duquemin.
‘I’m glad to have been part of Muratti history - it means a hell of a lot.’
Throughout the morning and early afternoon of Thursday 2 May 1957 hundreds of Jersey supporters poured into the island.
A mid-morning steamer brought over 457 fans and they were joined by another 719 on a day-excursion.
Four players made their debuts for Guernsey - goalkeeper Derek Trustum, 24, centre half Bob Brehaut, 21, centre forward Jimmy Eker, 24, and Freddie Willcocks, 19.
Willcocks, who now lives in New Zealand, was the baby of the team and had yet to play a full season of senior football.
The most experienced players, Tostevin, skipper Marshall Carre, Les Robilliard and Les Collins, had 53 caps between them.
Collins had played in all Guernsey’s post-war Murattis and set a record by becoming the first Guernseyman to play more than 16 times in the competition.
The game marked the final act in the Muratti careers of skipper Carre and Jersey captain Graeme Le Maistre.
Their duelling had started 23 years previously when Carre was centre half for Guernsey’s 1934 schoolboy Muratti team and Le Maistre was centre forward for the Caesareans.
Two Jersey players, Denis Lempriere and Denis Crenan, had been tempted to turn professional by Brighton and Hove Albion, but preferred to stay at home.
The Guernsey Evening Press reported that Guernsey sprang what most people regarded as the surprise of the season by beating Jersey in a thrill-packed game.
Its headlines read: ‘Muratti Vase Is Recovered. Guernsey gives Jersey A Football Lesson.’
In a sensational start Guernsey took the lead after four minutes as Robilliard shot into the top corner. But Jersey equalised quickly via de Gruchy.
Collins restored the lead with a tremendous header.
Just four minutes into the second half, Eker raced on to a Carre pass to make it three and Collins added a fourth before a Robilliard header made it five.
Tostevin then forced his way past two Jersey defenders and fired home to amazingly put Guernsey 6-1 up.
But Jersey fought back gamely in the 72nd minute with a Le Maistre goal and the same player headed another to reduce the arrears to 6-3.
Guernsey’s Micky Brassel had been carried from the field still suffering from an injury he sustained shortly after the interval.
‘Me and Micky Brassel collided and he got hurt and the gaps started to appear,’ recalled Duquemin.
Brassel carried on but again fell to the ground in agony and had to be taken off after 80 minutes, soon after which Parker hit Jersey’s fourth. Brassel returned seconds before the final whistle so he could collect his medal.
‘In my day only 11 people had them - there were no subs then,’ said Duquemin.
Guernsey held on and a jubilant Carre received the Muratti Vase from Jersey’s Lt-Governor after a magnificent victory.
The skipper refused to comment on the game itself, merely levelling criticism at the Guernsey Evening Press.
When a team is picked, he said, tell them not to criticise but to help.
Guernsey Evening Press reporter John Le Poidevin admitted in his match report how good it was to eat his words and that Jersey were not better as he had predicted they would be.
‘They were outgunned, outpointed and outplayed by the punchiest team Guernsey had put on the field in post-war years,’ he wrote.
‘This had been Guernsey’s finest footballing hour,’ he said.
The victorious team joined more than 1,000 dancers at the Muratti Ball in St George’s Hall in the evening. They celebrated to the music of Edgar Blampied and his orchestra.
‘The celebrations were great and you played all season for this. All my family have played for the island in some form. I was the last one to keep the Duquemin name going,’ said Lloyd.
His legendary brother, Len ‘The Duke’ Duquemin, played professionally for Tottenham after the war but never played a senior Muratti.
The team was told after the match that it would be unchanged for the Liberation Day game against Fulham.
Article posted on 2nd May, 2007 - 12.00am
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