THREE cheers for Ben Lowndes and, while you are at it, three for Mark Latter. The latter, no pun intended, has made his own impact this week when the local sporting headlines have been hogged by the Island Games.
As the driving force behind the Guernsey Cricket Association proposals to put a bit more oomph and meaning into domestic evening cricket, Mark Latter, a virtual one-man GCA management committee, deserves his own gold medal.
It’s a fantastic plan which will give fresh impetus to an increasingly dreary evening league and, crucially, if the GCA’s plans to insist on five bowlers in Twenty20 games by 2010 come to fruition, bring more people into the action and that can only be good.
If the GCA get their wish evening cricket teams will not have one trophy to chase, but two, just like they did in the glorious days of the Guernsey Press Knockouts.
Remember them?
Until a few Division One teams got snooty about playing cricket in early April and the Press decided to push their sporting sponsorship elsewhere, the annual curtain-raiser to the season was very popular throughout the divisions.
Under new sponsors, the competition then moved to the end of the season, but players, especially those preparing for the winter sporting programme, were losing interest and it did not work.
I have every faith that the new GCA plans will work and bring a bit more sparkle into a jaded old format at a time when more and more talented young players are emerging and can play their own part in a new scene.
The cricket fraternity should not worry about change.
English county cricket is forever changing its one-day schedules in a bid to maximise interest, while the truly serious stuff remains the Tests and the four-day championship.
For Guernsey, read the ICC competitions, which will come thick and fast now, and the GCA Championship.
Meanwhile, over in Rhodes, Lowndes has got the golden gong his career has richly deserved.
He has come a long way in the sport after his ignominious and spectacular trouser-dropping Island Games entrance in front of royalty in the Isle of Man six years ago.
His foolish actions indicated a personality that would never bear its full sporting fruit, but we were so wrong. He stuck to it in a sport which requires so much more than dedication than most.
The boy became a man and he now has four Island and two Commonwealth Games under his belt. Well done Ben, you deserved that medal.
And finally to Rhodes.
There has been much tutting and huffing about the scandalous mis-organisation. But has it been that bad or simply na’ve and laid-back, indicative of the Rhodes way of life?
The cyclists certainly had valid grievances but I strongly suspect just about every Guernsey competitor has had a whale of a time under a scorching sun while enjoying five-star accommodation and friendly hosts.
I’m sure their memories of Rhodes will be very fond ones.
The Games has come a long way in their 20-year existence and while it may be the biggest single event most of our sportsmen and women will ever attend, it is not the Olympics and should not be judged against an event of that magnitude.
In 1987, the Island Games athletics was staged on a grass track in the Isle of Man.
Two years later, it nearly submerged on the grit that was then Foote’s Lane.
Visiting islands had every right to groan, but in the spirit of things Guernsey were not hammered because the Games was a sporting festival and a cultural experience not to get too excited about.
Expectations have grown with every passing Games but it would be sad to lose sight of the quaint charm of the early biennial events.
It is easy to slag off, but those in glasshouses should always be wary of doing so.
And while it is true that the cycling event organisation has been largely a dog’s breakfast, let us recall that our own cycling programme in 2003, which was far from perfect despite the excellence of David Harry’s planning.
I will never forget the embarrassment of the time-trial finish outside Le Riche in St Peter’s and Terry Wright ploughing into the back of an Island FM car at a junction where cars waiting to turn right caused mayhem.
It should never have happened, but it did.
For all its faults, Rhodes has been a great games and a fitting farewell to the long-standing efforts of outgoing GIGA secretary Roy Martel.
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Hats off to swimming’s momentary ‘bad boy’
By Rob Batiste
THREE cheers for Ben Lowndes and, while you are at it, three for Mark Latter. The latter, no pun intended, has made his own impact this week when the local sporting headlines have been hogged by the Island Games.
As the driving force behind the Guernsey Cricket Association proposals to put a bit more oomph and meaning into domestic evening cricket, Mark Latter, a virtual one-man GCA management committee, deserves his own gold medal.
It’s a fantastic plan which will give fresh impetus to an increasingly dreary evening league and, crucially, if the GCA’s plans to insist on five bowlers in Twenty20 games by 2010 come to fruition, bring more people into the action and that can only be good.
If the GCA get their wish evening cricket teams will not have one trophy to chase, but two, just like they did in the glorious days of the Guernsey Press Knockouts.
Remember them?
Until a few Division One teams got snooty about playing cricket in early April and the Press decided to push their sporting sponsorship elsewhere, the annual curtain-raiser to the season was very popular throughout the divisions.
Under new sponsors, the competition then moved to the end of the season, but players, especially those preparing for the winter sporting programme, were losing interest and it did not work.
I have every faith that the new GCA plans will work and bring a bit more sparkle into a jaded old format at a time when more and more talented young players are emerging and can play their own part in a new scene.
The cricket fraternity should not worry about change.
English county cricket is forever changing its one-day schedules in a bid to maximise interest, while the truly serious stuff remains the Tests and the four-day championship.
For Guernsey, read the ICC competitions, which will come thick and fast now, and the GCA Championship.
Meanwhile, over in Rhodes, Lowndes has got the golden gong his career has richly deserved.
He has come a long way in the sport after his ignominious and spectacular trouser-dropping Island Games entrance in front of royalty in the Isle of Man six years ago.
His foolish actions indicated a personality that would never bear its full sporting fruit, but we were so wrong. He stuck to it in a sport which requires so much more than dedication than most.
The boy became a man and he now has four Island and two Commonwealth Games under his belt. Well done Ben, you deserved that medal.
And finally to Rhodes.
There has been much tutting and huffing about the scandalous mis-organisation. But has it been that bad or simply na’ve and laid-back, indicative of the Rhodes way of life?
The cyclists certainly had valid grievances but I strongly suspect just about every Guernsey competitor has had a whale of a time under a scorching sun while enjoying five-star accommodation and friendly hosts.
I’m sure their memories of Rhodes will be very fond ones.
The Games has come a long way in their 20-year existence and while it may be the biggest single event most of our sportsmen and women will ever attend, it is not the Olympics and should not be judged against an event of that magnitude.
In 1987, the Island Games athletics was staged on a grass track in the Isle of Man.
Two years later, it nearly submerged on the grit that was then Foote’s Lane.
Visiting islands had every right to groan, but in the spirit of things Guernsey were not hammered because the Games was a sporting festival and a cultural experience not to get too excited about.
Expectations have grown with every passing Games but it would be sad to lose sight of the quaint charm of the early biennial events.
It is easy to slag off, but those in glasshouses should always be wary of doing so.
And while it is true that the cycling event organisation has been largely a dog’s breakfast, let us recall that our own cycling programme in 2003, which was far from perfect despite the excellence of David Harry’s planning.
I will never forget the embarrassment of the time-trial finish outside Le Riche in St Peter’s and Terry Wright ploughing into the back of an Island FM car at a junction where cars waiting to turn right caused mayhem.
It should never have happened, but it did.
For all its faults, Rhodes has been a great games and a fitting farewell to the long-standing efforts of outgoing GIGA secretary Roy Martel.
Article posted on 7th July, 2007 - 12.00am