GUERNSEY is officially backing the Isle of Wight in their bid to stage the 2011 NatWest Island Games. The hosts of the successful 1993 Games are going head-to-head with Bermuda for the right to put on the 18th biennial event and Guernsey’s vote will be cast at next weekend’s annual meeting of the International Island Games Association in Rhodes.

Delegates to the Guernsey Island Games Association this week voted 10-4 in favour of the UK offshore isle ahead of the more glamorous option.

Roy Martel, the Giga secretary, said he was ‘not really surprised’.

‘I think more on a cost basis the Isle of Wight would always be the favourite for us,’ he said.

‘My feeling is the cost implications would have been a big plus factor [in the vote].’

Guernsey’s wishes follow the recommendation made by the IIGA to support the Isle of Wight,

But the IIGA do not always get their own way.

They supported Anglesey in the bidding for the 2009 event, but Aland won the day.

Martel and Giga chairman Denise Fawcett will be Guernsey’s representatives at next week’s meeting in Rhodes, the hosts of the 2007 Games.

Plans are already well advanced to send another very large Guernsey team to the Greek island next summer.

‘We think we will be in the region of 240 to 250. It depends on football,’ said Martel.

The Guernsey Football Association had voted against sending teams to Rhodes on safety grounds, but there remains a possibility that decision could be overturned.

Whether the footballers travel or not, the Sarnian contingent will fly by charter from Gatwick to Greece on Wednesday 27 June, returning on Saturday 6 July.

‘We’re taking the extra days for acclimatization,’ said Martel.

Meanwhile, cycling is not giving up hope of

competing at the 2009 Games in Aland despite the former Games ‘core’ sport being voted off the schedule.

David Harry, president of the Guernsey Velo Club, is aware that cycling remains one of the more popular sports within the IIGA membership and is hopeful that next week’s gathering in Rhodes will put pressure on Aland to overturn their decision to leave it out of their schedule.

‘We are still pressing them to see if they will change their minds,’ said Harry.

‘It’s an uphill struggle but not something I will give up on lightly.’