The foundations of the club go back to a couple of years earlier to when a group of lads – Maurice Le Huray and the Batiste brothers of John, Brian and Don – started playing cricket on the commons at Vazon and Cobo. After a game, they would head to the Rockmount for a drink and started talking about cricket to others in the bar. Soon they had garnered enough interest to get a team together. 

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In 1956 a small committee was formed with Le Huray made captain of the team and Rockmount CC came into existence, playing friendly matches against visiting holidaymakers or pub sides. Things turned more formal the following year when terms of membership of the club were laid out in June 1957 – an entrance fee of two shillings and sixpence was required – and the name of the club changed as Cobo CC were born. 

Former Guernsey Press sports editor and one- time Cobo president John Le Poidevin wrote of the original brigade that ‘coaching would have been a foreign language to them, but what they didn’t lack was a love of sport’ and that crucial love of cricket has remained the ethos of our club ever since. 

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Although island stars were not part of the Cobo CC make-up in the early years – Mick ‘Tico’ Mechem being a notable exception as he became the first Cobo player to be capped by Guernsey – success on the field arrived relatively quickly and the side were promoted to the top flight for the 1962 season. 

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Five years later we won our first Evening League crown, just a decade on from our humble beginnings. We have gone on to make it 20 EL titles and counting, to go with 11 Weekend League crowns, 15 GCA Cups and a couple of Channel Islands Club Championships in its extended guise following on from two Trislander Trophy ‘Upton’ successes. 

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The club have not been afraid to spread our wings either. Early ‘tours’ to Alderney and annual matches against St Ouen of Jersey took us on our travels and we became the first Sarnian club to enter the Jersey Knockout, winning it on a couple of memorable occasions. 

Cobo CC even hit the national media headlines in 1990 when we played in the National Village competition for the first time and while the initial trip to Fleet in Hampshire to face Crown Taverners saw some lasting friendships formed, a couple of subsequent ill-tempered encounters on the mainland called a halt to their participation after two seasons. 

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You see, the most important aspect of Cobo has always been that our players enjoy their cricket. ‘We have always been a tight unit of mates playing together,’ club president David Nussbaumer said. ‘The cricket has always been approached seriously, but we have also always enjoyed ourselves as a group and it has proved to be a recipe for success. 

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‘It all started as a group of mates in a pub – the heart and soul of the club started from the Rockmount in those early days, that heart and soul is still there now and we hope that it remains for a long time to come and that people continue to buy into the ethos of the club.’ 

Cobo owe much to the work done behind the scenes over the years by stalwarts such as Hedley Tostevin, Geoff Queripel, the Le Lacheur brothers ‘Basher’ and ‘Piper’, Graham Chester, Tony Ayton and Rob Batiste. However, think of Cobo Cricket Club and two surnames tend to spring to mind – Nussbaumer and Le Prevost – for the long-standing and ongoing contributions of the respective families to the cause. 

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The name of Brian Le Prevost features in the club minutes from the very early days and even now, in the year he turned 75, he is club chairman. Prev’s elder son Stuart has served as a highly successful captain of both Cobo and Guernsey, before being succeeded in both roles by David’s son, Jamie. David, whose other son, Luke, is also a first- team player for both club and island nowadays.

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At the end of the 2021 season, both Brian and David stepped down from their respective roles as Chairman and President of the Club, with former first team player and manager, Peter Vidamour, taking on the Chairmanship and his former teammate Paul Butler taking up the role of Vice Chairman.

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The 2023 season will see Paul's son, Josh, step down from the 1st Team captaincy, with former Hampshire professional, Tim Ravenscroft, taking charge in Evening League cricket, and Tom Veillard leading the club in our Weekend League fixtures.