This Is Guernsey

By Aaron Scoones

IT WAS agony and ecstasy yesterday for Guernsey’s youngest and oldest Island Games competitors. Ruth O’Rorke, 83, the Games’ oldest medal winner, was talking of her joy at collecting her clay pigeon shooting team bronze.

But young table tennis star Alice Loveridge was reduced to tears when a leg injury hit her in the team final.

She and partner Garry Dodd were level at two-all in the mixed doubles, a match Guernsey had to win to take the final to a decider, when she injured a leg.

The plucky 12-year-old carried on although badly hampered, but she and her partner lost the deciding set and with it the gold medal.

She is, however, expected to be fit for the individual competition.

While the team’s hopes rested on young Alice’s shoulders, Mrs O’Rorke revealed that her bronze was down to the efforts of fellow women’s sporting team members Sue Fish and Dale Langlois.

Making her Games debut on Monday, Mrs O’Rorke - the oldest competitor in Rhodes - had to hold up a heavy shotgun for prolonged periods in temperatures touching 40C.

‘I could hardly believe it and I still can’t,’ she said yesterday. ‘It’s very exciting. It’s the last time I’ll appear in something like this.

‘It’s been lovely here.

A bit warm, though, certainly on the day I was shooting, and I got through the water in a big way.

‘I’ve enjoyed it - I didn’t come here to feel sorry for myself.’

Originally from south Dublin, Mrs O’Rorke took up wildfowl shooting when she married Maurice in 1947.

After moving to Guernsey, the mother of five started clay pigeon shooting in 1986 and has never looked back.

‘I like all sport,’ she said.

‘I still play golf - I’m not in a coffin yet.’

In Rhodes, her team racked up 40 points to finish behind Shetland Islands and Isle of Man, who scored 45 and 56 respectively.

Mrs O’Rorke failed to score and praised her colleagues.

She also joked that it might affect her chances in being selected for the next Games in Aland in two years’ time.

‘I’ll be 85 by then,’ she said. ‘I’m sure that they won’t take me away again.’

But Guernsey shooting team manager Mick Le Pelley was full of praise for Mrs O’Rorke and her medal.

‘It’s outstanding for her,’ he said.

‘She’s been a stalwart of the club for a number of years. I think shooting is her focus and at 83, she is one of the boys.

‘She’s a lovely lady. She’s always got a smile on her face and a bag of sweets.’