Cobo opener and top scorer TJ Ozanne pushes the ball into the off-side for a single during last evening’s win over Salemites at the KGV. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0606535)

IT WAS a baptism of fire for Guernsey yesterday as they lost their first match in the ECC Under-17 Division One Championship to Scotland.

In a 50-over encounter played at Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, Guernsey went down by 109 runs on their debut in the top division in Europe. But coach Jeremy Frith, who is also the island performance coach, feels that there were a lot of positives to take away from the experience.

‘Tournament-wise it’s a bit of disaster, but from a development side today was a positive,’ he said after the game.

‘With the exception of Tim Ravenscroft, for all of them this was their first proper game of cricket.

‘Player for player there was hardly any difference between us and them, but the discipline of the Scottish players and their cricket awareness was the difference.’