Time and Tide is new Squires

By Phill Falle

Time and Tide will be run by Natalie Tighe and Trish Shuker. (0552537)

SARK Shipping’s management has made a move to bring back entertainment to Creux Harbour.

According to an informal announcement made at last week’s Sark Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting, the company wants to use the new cargo boat, the Sark Viking, as a stage on which something akin to the Shetland Folk Festival can be produced.

It appears that the vessel will be similarly utilised early in August for an event in St Peter Port Harbour. Someone came up with the excellent idea of repeating the exercise in Creux Harbour before the vessel is put back to its usual use.

It’s very early days yet, but I understand that the company, which is joining forces with Wave Telecom for the idea, have earmarked the weekend of 9 and 10 August for the event.

As anyone who either lived in or came to Sark five or more years ago will know, the Water Carnival was held for many years at Creux Harbour until – as I understand it, but if I’m wrong someone will tell me – time and tide, along with the prohibitive cost of insurance in these litigation-crazy days, combined to move the event first to the field behind the Bel Air Inn and then, more recently, to the Millennium Field.

However, last year the carnival was cancelled, primarily because it was impossible to recruit enough people to help in organising the event (as distinct from helping during the weekend) but also because an increasing number of local residents and regular tourists were unhappy about the behaviour of a minority of visitors attracted to it.

Sadly, for this minority, carnival weekend was not about a family occasion at which many hundreds of people could enjoy some good, old-fashioned fun, but more about throwing as much drink down their throats as possible in 48 hours and then not much caring where, and in what form, they ultimately disposed of the contents of their stomach.

With this in mind, and at the risk of being labelled a killjoy, I would much rather those behind this excellent concept tested the water this year, simply by holding a one-day event. Then the vast majority of those coming over to Sark to enjoy it will return from whence they came – be it Guernsey or Jersey – on the same day, unless they have previously arranged accommodation.

Let’s see how it goes for a day before deciding whether or not Sark is ready for a longer event, shall we?

I referred quite deliberately to time and tide helping to move the carnival because it gives me a peg upon which to hang yet another change in the face of The Avenue. What used to be Squires Restaurant, run for many years by Bob and Jacqui Squire, is now being refurbished and Natalie Tighe is applying next week for a liquor licence for the premises. Natalie is currently working at the Bel Air but used to work for Billy Fitzmaurice at what was then Fitz’s Bistro (now Stumbles Restaurant).It will be called Time and Tide and will be run by Ms Tighe and Trish Shuker. Trish ran La Moinerie Hotel and Restaurant – a great favourite with residents and tourists – for many years.

Work is still going on at the premises and it’s not yet known precisely when it will open for business. Like everywhere else currently getting a lick of paint or more, it should not be that far away.

Chief Pleas meets next week and, not surprisingly, the reform law is back on the agenda.It gives me no pleasure at all to recall writing, almost a month ago, that perhaps the decision to fly flags following the last meeting was just a little premature.

We now learn that because further petitions to the Queen in Council have been presented, the law’s progress through its legal requirements has yet again been halted.

I don’t know whether it was just me, but I came away from a public meeting at which Justice Minister of State Michael Wills spoke clearly believing that absolutely nothing could impede the progress of this legislation. Now, I find that it is being impeded – not least by Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay’s petition that, presumably, seeks to include in the law those matters included in draft amendments that were not permitted to be debated in February.

How much better it might have been had those issues – which centre primarily on the roles of the Seigneur and Seneschal – been aired last month. Who knows, a debate at which members could approve or otherwise the changes being proposed might well have avoided yet another delay.

The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net