Sussex cricket umpire's experience officiating in Jersey

Sussex Cricket League umpire Matt French spent last weekend umpiring in Jersey. It's been a long wait for umpires and players to get back on the field but they are back. Here Matt talks about his experience.
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As the spring turned into summer the chances of getting any cricket in England was becoming more and more remote, so desperate was I to get some cricket this year I decided to look further afield for possibilities to umpiring.

I considered Guernsey as they started their season at the beginning of June but they had ensured all their boarders were closed to the outside world so that ruled it out for me.

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So, I then contacted my Jersey colleague, Heath Kearns and asked about possibilities there, he put me in contact with the umpire’s appointments officer who was able to offer me 4 games over the weekend 18th – 19th July.

Umpire Matt FrenchUmpire Matt French
Umpire Matt French

The next hurdle to overcome was getting accommodation and flights and I must give credit to Graham Irwin for assisting with the booking ensuring that all the necessary paperwork that is required when travelling in this Coronavirus pandemic were completed correctly.

The trip over was easy, with fewer people travelling it was nice to have the train, and plane to myself and once I got used to it wearing the face mask it wasn’t that much of a big deal.

The two Saturday matches were played at Grainville Cricket Club and easy walking distance from my hotel so although all uphill it did give me the opportunity to clock up some miles towards the 9463 Challenge that we have all be set by the First Class umpires who have been walking from Lahore to Manchester and back for 3 charities The Cricketers Trust, Prostate Cancer and The British Asian Trust. They have until the end of July to complete this and we have been set the same challenge by the end of August.

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Grainville Cricket Club is the main ground on Jersey and has hosted many international games including the World League final in 2008 when Jersey played Afghanistan which was the prelude to the future success of the Afghan team.

The matches were both Premier League played in coloured clothing with white ball, they were good standard and the COVID-19 regulations are not as strict as they are in England so the games were more “normal” the main differences were that the umpires had to sanitise the ball after every over and the players are expected to sanitise every 10 overs. We also like in mainland UK were unable to use the changing rooms.

The first match was between Walkovers and St Ouen, St Ouen won the toss and set a score of 118/5 off their 20 Overs, Walkovers managed to just get over the line with 3 wickets in hand, their first win of the season… they are called “Walkovers” for a reason!

The second game was Walkovers again, they played Old Victorians a side made up of old boys from Victoria College, which is the oldest independent school on the island, built in 1852. OV’s won the toss and batted first, former Sussex and Sussex League player Jonty Jenner was playing for OV and looked in good form, hitting a few clean hits but unfortunately was bowled by a great in swinging delivery. OV finished on 141/6 off their 20 overs. This score was simply to high for Walkovers and they ended up with 112 all out with 4 balls remaining in the innings.

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Sunday’s matches were at the FB Fields, this is named after Florence Boot who came from Jersey and married Jess Boot of Boots the Chemist. It has a very impressive pavilion and I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to look round it as I’m sure it would have been very interesting and full of cricketing memorabilia

These games were Division 1 matches which are all club’s 2nd XI’s, these are all red ball matches with white clothing so it was nice to have a variation from the Saturday.

St Ouen 2nd XI were playing OV 2nd XI in the first match, OV won the toss and batted first, and made a huge score of 220/ 7 with the opening batsman making 86 after being dropped twice when in the 20’s. This score was far too much for St Ouen and they ended up 100 runs short of the target.

The second match, St Ouen 2ndXI played Walkovers 2nd XI, St Ouen batted first and made a decent score of 121/ 6 from their 20 overs, however Walkovers had depth in their batting and although they lost wickets early they were able to get the winning runs in the 16th over, this also meant that they had won the league on run rate.

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Overall, I very much enjoyed my weekend in Jersey and although thanks to Boris’s u -turn they won’t be the only games I umpire in 2020, if they had been, they would have been worth it.

I am looking forward to the SCL August Cup and I’m sure this season will end up being a season to remember, not just because of COVID -19 but for some entertaining cricket.

Go well everyone – Stay safe

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