Frith powers Guernsey to promotion

A outstanding all-round performance from Jeremy Frith, who scored his second successive century and took five wickets, helped Guernsey secure promotion from the ICC World Cricket League Division 7 with a thumping 263-run victory at Castelagainst Suriname, who relegated to Division 8

Frith, who has scored 364 runs in the tournament to date, won his third man-of-the-match award this week but he was happier to focus on his side's promotion and Sunday's final against Bahrain than his own individual success.

"As I said earlier in the week, the man-of-the-match award is incidental. The important thing was to win the game and book a place for Singapore which is what we set out to do," Frith said. "Stuart [Le Prevost] and I have batted well on a few occasions. It was nice to get 300 on the board, as this week we have fielded first a lot.

Lee Savident (45) and Matt Oliver (52) gave Guernsey a lively start when the two put on 106 for the first wicket. After both the openers were dismissed in the space of five overs, Frith and captain Stuart Le Prevost proceeded to launch the ball all over KG Five in a brilliant 182-run partnership. In reply, just two Suriname batsmen reached double figures with Frith following up his century with 5 for 8 from four overs.

"It is awesome to get promoted. We didn't expect to turn Suriname over like we did but we came into the game with a professional attitude and really did the business," Le Prevost said. "In the past we have been criticised for our tournament play which hasn't been great and there have been a couple of European tournaments where we haven't really played to our potential.

"We play as a team, we win as a team, we lose as a team, and hopefully we are going to go to Singapore and grind out some results there."

At the other end of the table, Japan recorded a vital 29-run win over Gibraltar at College Field to secure their Division 7 status. Patrick Giles-Jones made a vital contribution of 69 as Japan reached 227-8 off 50 overs, before Gibraltar fell just short of its target when it was dismissed for 198 all out.

Elsewhere, a century by Ashraf Yagoob (104 not out) and 83 by Azeem Ul Haque helped Bahrain to 273 for 5 against Nigeria, who then folded for 97 at Port Soif.