St Helens won the Gozo Memorial Cup by beating Ryde by 3 wickets at Harding Shute on Sunday (4th September).
In the past 5 years in particular, Ryde had dominated the cup, which was first played in 1987 – but that run came to an end at the weekend.
Ryde won the toss and elected to bat. R Hobbs and J Jayerajah opened the batting. The St Helens opening bowler struck 1st with the wicket of R Hobbs for a duck. But J Jayerajah battled on for a 50 before being trapped lbw by bowler R Holdcroft.
Geoff Kite and Ben Baker kept the scoreboard ticking over nicely. St Helens chipped away and picked up a couple more wickets keeping things under control. Ryde needed to get the scoreboard going, and this set it up nicely for the big-hitting Tom Roscoe, who scored 54 off 29 balls before being caught out by a fine catch by Ritesh on the boundary off the bowling of C Parsons. After their 35 overs, Ryde had set the competitive total of 220.
St Helens opening batsman M. Watson and L Brown didn’t waste any time with Watson scoring 28 off 14 balls before Ryde all-rounder J Jayerajah bowled out Watson. The ever-dependable Lee Brown and the in-form Ritesh set the game up for St Helens with a fine partnership. St Helens did have a minor wobble in the middle with veteran Ryde bowler A Gillet picking up 3 quick wickets. Young Mitch Balloch settled St Helens’ nerves with a fine 18 before getting bowled by A Goldsmith.
With St Helens only needing 17 more runs and plenty of overs and 3 wickets remaining, C. Parsons steered st Helens to victory.
Ryde 220/6 St Helens 224/7 St Helens won by 3 wickets
Man-of-the-match Ritesh (for a fine 88 and 3 catches)
Up the Goosers, well played lads. Two cup wins in a week! Race night at the Vine Saturday night to raise funds for club.