It was a good day for cricket in Jersey today. Not only did they beat their old rivals Guernsey, but they qualified for their first global qualifier in the process.

Jersey captain Peter Gough won the toss at Farmer's Field and sent Guernsey into bat. Opener Oliver Newey was removed in quick fashion before Tom Kimber and Tim Ravenscroft gave Guernsey a good foundation with a second wicket partnership of 57.

The partnership ended when Nat Watkins had Ravenscroft caught for 39 from the penultimate ball of the 10th over. He then put the visitors well on the back foot when he dismissed Kimber from the next ball, leaving Guernsey on 60-3 at the halfway stage of their innings.

Guernsey didn't really recover from that setback and were restricted to 121-9 from their 20 overs. Watkins took two more wickets to finish with 4-18, whilst Rhys Palmer also chipped in with three wickets.

Knowing that they needed to chase down their target quickly due to the perilous net run rate situation, Jersey got a move on, the opening partnership of Peter Gough and Ed Farley scoring 32 before Farley was out from the last ball of the third over. Gough was out for 23 from 13 balls in the next over.

Cornelis Bodenstein clubbed 36 from 19 balls, whilst Anthony Hawkins-Kay scored an unbeaten 25 from 18 balls to secure a four wicket win for Jersey in 14.3 overs. The net run rate calculations showed that Jersey were still behind Italy, so attention turned to Grainville where the defending champions were taking on Denmark.

Jersey needed a Danish win - but not too big a win - for them to win the title, and Denmark had got themselves into a good position. After being put in to bat, an innings of 67 from 59 balls by Freddie Klokker had enable the Danes to score 142-6 from their 20 overs. Hamid Shah had also contributed with a run a ball 25.

They then got themselves into a fantastic position when they had Italy on 21-4 in the fifth over, Basit Javed taking three of the four wickets. Damian Crowley and Michael Raso then rebuilt the Italian innings with a partnership of 86 for the fifth wicket. When Raso was out for 45 though, it became apparent that they were scoring the runs too slowly.

At 110-5, Italy needed 33 from the final three overs, and when Crowley was out for 43 from the first ball of the 18th over, it looked even less likely. They were kept to 126-9 from their 20 overs, losing by 16 runs.

Back at Farmers Field, the net run rate calculations confirmed that Jersey had indeed qualified for the World Twenty20 Qualifier in Ireland/Scotland in July, the first global qualifier for the Channel Islanders in the year that marks their 10th anniversary as an ICC member.

The other match of the day, over at FB Fields, saw France take on Norway in the battle to decide which of the two teams would be relegated to Division Two. After a good start to the tournament, France will be bitterly disappointed with their 15 run defeat to the Norwegians.