DAVID PIESING has the answer to most things in cricket development. Hence the excellent health of the local game.
But if the GCB chairman could swish a magic wand in the manner he might flash and miss at an express paceman and make one wish, he might choose to give Guernsey cricket a handful of what the game is crying out for – fast bowlers.
As the regular texts filtered through on my mobile informing me of Guernsey’s steady subsidence with the bat against Kenya, I was not surprised.
It may look good on their season’s stats to take a ton off Wanderers in their final Carey Olsen GCA Championship game, but four days later Cobo’s Jeremy Frith and Stuart Le Prevost faced an altogether stiffer challenge, scoring against really good bowlers.
That the island side failed to get within 72 of Kenya’s 194 for nine should surprise nobody with knowledge of the strength of bowling in the island at this time.
The best and quickest bowlers played for Cobo and as virtually all the Guernsey side play for the west-coast outfit, the island’s best batters never get to face the best bowlers.
It’s a problem.
Twenty-five years ago we had a wide range of pacemen, the likes of which would walk into today’s team.
What wouldn’t we do for a new Dobson-Creed spearhead, which was Guernsey’s answer to Lillee and Thompson.
I still recall batsmen backing off the mat on the hard and bouncy plastic Osmond Priaulx strip as the Rovers bowlers attempted, often successfully, to terrorise the opposing lower orders.
Pilgrims were well stocked, too.
A youthful Andy Burkhardt with his steepling bounce and seam movement could be as scary as anyone, while left-armer Dave Hearse whipped the ball across the batters’ nose from leg to off.
Guy Stuckey, another Pilgrim, was no slouch either, nor was Mike de Haaff in his pomp.
The problem then, as now, is that most of the quickies were with one or two clubs.
When Dobson and Creed were at their wickedest in tandem, their Rovers side was the Cobo of today.
When they went their separate ways, Creed joined Pilgrims who became the superpower.
I would never advocate forced movement of our best senior players – it’s perfectly OK at junior level – but for Guernsey to turn winning positions against the likes of Kenya into wins, we need to find some quickies to test our best on a weekly basis.
Where have all the pacemen gone?
DAVID PIESING has the answer to most things in cricket development. Hence the excellent health of the local game.
But if the GCB chairman could swish a magic wand in the manner he might flash and miss at an express paceman and make one wish, he might choose to give Guernsey cricket a handful of what the game is crying out for – fast bowlers.
As the regular texts filtered through on my mobile informing me of Guernsey’s steady subsidence with the bat against Kenya, I was not surprised.
It may look good on their season’s stats to take a ton off Wanderers in their final Carey Olsen GCA Championship game, but four days later Cobo’s Jeremy Frith and Stuart Le Prevost faced an altogether stiffer challenge, scoring against really good bowlers.
That the island side failed to get within 72 of Kenya’s 194 for nine should surprise nobody with knowledge of the strength of bowling in the island at this time.
The best and quickest bowlers played for Cobo and as virtually all the Guernsey side play for the west-coast outfit, the island’s best batters never get to face the best bowlers.
It’s a problem.
Twenty-five years ago we had a wide range of pacemen, the likes of which would walk into today’s team.
What wouldn’t we do for a new Dobson-Creed spearhead, which was Guernsey’s answer to Lillee and Thompson.
I still recall batsmen backing off the mat on the hard and bouncy plastic Osmond Priaulx strip as the Rovers bowlers attempted, often successfully, to terrorise the opposing lower orders.
Pilgrims were well stocked, too.
A youthful Andy Burkhardt with his steepling bounce and seam movement could be as scary as anyone, while left-armer Dave Hearse whipped the ball across the batters’ nose from leg to off.
Guy Stuckey, another Pilgrim, was no slouch either, nor was Mike de Haaff in his pomp.
The problem then, as now, is that most of the quickies were with one or two clubs.
When Dobson and Creed were at their wickedest in tandem, their Rovers side was the Cobo of today.
When they went their separate ways, Creed joined Pilgrims who became the superpower.
I would never advocate forced movement of our best senior players – it’s perfectly OK at junior level – but for Guernsey to turn winning positions against the likes of Kenya into wins, we need to find some quickies to test our best on a weekly basis.
Article posted on 25th July, 2008 - 9.28am