A SHETLANDER will play a key role as the Channel Islands Athletics Club bid to win the British Jubilee Cup plate for a third time in four attempts. Ben Kerr, 20, will do his best to fill the boots of injured star Dale Garland as a strong CIAC mixed team head to Derby for a semi-final against some of the strongest clubs in the UK.

Garland, who undergoes surgery in the UK next week to treat a hernia, will probably run only in the two relays in Derby, but Kerr, the Scottish decathlon champion and a protege of CIAC team manager Andrew Winnie from his days in Shetland, will be a very handy replacement for the Guernsey star.

‘Absolutely,’ said Winnie, when that suggestion was put to him.

Kerr, who is spending his summer holidays in Jersey before returning to university, is pencilled in for five individual events in Derby. He is particularly strong in the sprint hurdles, pole vault and triple jump.

‘He’s a Shetland boy and started with me when he was about nine,’ said Winnie.

‘He’s a very good all-round athlete.

Winnie said his acquisition was vital, especially with Garland leaving decathlon to concentrate on 400m hurdles.

The CIAC team won’t learn of their exact opposition until Sunday and an hour or so before the match.

But it promises to be very tough with the two seeded clubs being Shaftesbury Barnet and the 2005 Premiership champions, Woodford Green with Essex Ladies.

CIAC will get one of those two clubs in their eight-team match along with six from the remaining 13, eight of which are of British League status.

Basingstoke, Bedford, Enfield and Haringey, Harrow, Herne Hill Harriers, Herts Phoenix, Newham and Essex Beagles and Southend are the other British League teams in the competition, but CIAC have beaten that level of club previously and believe it can be done again, even without Garland, Jo McGarry, Claire Forbes and Erica Bodman, all first-choices.

‘I’m quietly confident we can make the final.

‘It’s the quality of overall performance that counts, rather than where athletes place.

‘It’s a huge competition by computer whereby performances at all three semi-finals are measured and the top eight clubs go through to the final.

‘In the two non-Island Games years we’ve competed, we’ve won the plate,’ said the coach who is also close to seeing his men’s squad win the Division Two title and complete their climb up the Southern League ladder.

With one match remaining CIAC are top by virtue of more aggregate points scored than Chelmsford who match them for match points.

Chelmsford have a home match against weak opposition to finish, but with an advantage of 29.5 points, Winnie is confident that the title can be clinched and thereby temporarily ease the constant worry of keeping the club afloat financially.

‘I’d like to win the league – it’s good for the profile.

‘If we can get out a reasonably strong team on 5 August, we will win the league,’ he added.

For that match GIAAC’s new head of throws, Alan Rowberry, hopes to make his belated CIAC debut after a season of injury.

CIAC are also now benefiting from the presence of GIAAC javelin and hammer record-holder James Menhenitt, who has recently returned to the sport after a long lay-off.

Menhenitt won useful points on his CIAC debut in Portsmouth at the weekend, winning the B-string shot with 11.51m and gaining two second-place finishes and a third.

‘It was an excellent debut,’ said Winnie.

‘If he keeps working hard, he will be very useful to us.’