Guernsey under-15 cricketers finish third

Matthew Stokes was ranked as the second most valuable player

Guernsey lost their final game of the ICC European Under-15 Championship to Ireland on Saturday.

The island side finished third in the tournament, one place above Jersey, after winning two of their five matches at the tournament in the Netherlands.

Guernsey players Matthew Stokes and Joshua Kirk were ranked as the second and third most valuable players (MVP).

Coach Lee Savident said: "Stokes was unlucky to be edged out by only 10 points on the MVP score."

The young Guernsey cricketers started the tournament with wins over Denmark, by six wickets, and hosts the Netherlands, by three wickets, before facing favourites Scotland.

After their first meeting of the sides was rained off, they met again with Scotland winning by four wickets and reaching their target of 162 in 39 overs.

Jersey won by 17 runs when the neighbouring islands clashed and Ireland secured second place with a seven-wicket win over Guernsey.

Savident said: "One of the big problems we have with our cricketers is that although these guys are technically very, very good, they're not physically strong enough at the moment and we really found that this week.

"Bearing in mind it's an under-15 tournament, we had seven or eight lads who are only under-14s so next year we should really fancy ourselves to really compete and hopefully go on and win it."

Savident added that there was reason to hope that competition might be held in Guernsey.