Left, a St Peter Port basketball side of 1971: back row, from left – Tim Le Cheminant, Grant Williamson, Tony Masterton and Martin Petit; front – Tim Martel, Brian Queru and Peter Falla. (0590729)
FROM the day St Peter Port Secondary opened its doors the fast-moving basketball production line moved into top gear.
In 40 years it has never ground to a halt and the Guernsey Basketball Association is indebted to a school that has produced dozens of top players to grace their leagues.
John Mountford, former teacher at the school and also president of the GBA, knows as well as anyone the legacy of St Peter Port.
‘The GBA has benefited hugely from the school,’ said Mountford, who was one of several teachers at Les Ozouets which enthusiastically coaxed the best out of boys and girls who loved the game. But, said Mountford, nobody should take more credit than Robbie Burns, who was there at the start.
‘They’d come into play basketball before school started. Robbie would have them in the gym at lunchtime and they’d be there after school. ‘They preferred basketball to football.’
The link with the sport was such that the GBA headquarters was at the school and most league games were played there until Beau Sejour sports hall came on line at the latter end of the 1970s.
At one stage, recalled Mountford, the school had six teams playing in the GBA league structure, all under the banner of Fiat.
The top side was Fiat Lux.
‘Robbie started it off and it was amazing.
‘He breathed basketball.’
Other teachers who had the bug for the game included John Cox, Peter Sherbourne, Julian Patch, Pat Larkin and Pete Baker.
But, for years, Burns was the key.
Tony Masterton, who joined the school in 1968 and was part of a superb early all-gold school squad including the likes of Martin Petit, Grant Williamson, Tim Le Cheminant, Tony Thomas and Peter Falla.
‘We lost one game in just four years and that was up at Beaucamps,’ said Masterton. He heaped praise on Burns.
‘They don’t come much better than Robbie.
‘He was brilliant – he knew the game inside out.
‘There has not been a better person on the island for basketball than him. He got the best out of everybody.’
Other fine players to emerge from the school include Phil Keutzer, Ian Hickton, Brian Rumens, Steve Pugh, Keith Trimble, Chris Hamon and the best of the lot, Martin Yabsley, before he headed off to the Grammar sixth-form and life as a professional player.
But that short list does not do justice to the influence the team in gold have had on a very grateful sport.
Article posted on 14th June, 2008 - 9.29am
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