With family-friendly activities such as sandcastle-building, stilt walking and the tug of war, the Rocquaine Regatta was the place to be on Saturday, as

Phil Henderson reports. Pictures by Adrian Miller THIS year’s Rocqaine Regatta on the west coast on Saturday dished out another helping of barmy beach activities and seriously good fun.

Committee secretary Hugh Lenfestey said hundreds had enjoyed the land and sea entertainment on offer at the annual event.

‘It’s family-oriented and there is something for everyone, whether you are old or young or somewhere in between.’

Performance events included swimming and rowing races, as well as cycling and motorboat racing. These were complemented by the arguably less rational hurling the welly and the throwing the rolling pin competitions, among others.

‘It is a fun day’s outing,’ said Mr Lenfestey.

‘We’ve got the beach and other activities where you can take part without any bother of having to sign up to anything beforehand.’

Most of the aquatic sports, beach events and coast road activities took place on Saturday. The event also featured land and sea sports events on Friday and walking races yesterday.

A beach barbeque and live music by bands presented by the Vale Earth Fair collective concluded Saturday’s events.

Mr Lenfestey said the event had been planned to include everyone.

‘It has to be as much as it can be, with something like team events so that people can come down and take part in something.’

He said it had passed off very well, despite occasionally gloomy weather.

‘We had some very nice moments and some events finished late because they were so well supported, particularly the talent contests.’

For 18 of the organisers, there was no time to relax yesterday morning, as they took part in the big clear-up, which began at 6am.

The sandcastle competition

EXTRA space had to be marked out to cope with an unprecedented number of participants.

‘It’s massively popular this year,’ said regatta committee member Amanda Bennett.

‘We always get a lot of people, but this year it seems to be teeming with them.’

About 60 squares were marked out. Teams split into infants, juniors and open, for those over 11 years old. There were also group competitions, sand sculptures and a rollerball competition.

Four-year-old James Cleal’s group won in its category.

‘I worked very hard and the judge said it was the best,’ said James.

The rollerball challenge required teams to construct a sand path for a ball to roll along. The team that rolled it for the longest time won.

‘It’s quite hard because there is lots of competition and only two of us, so it’s a bit unfair,’ said 16-year-old Jonny Porter, who worked with his school friend, 16-year-old Alex Eddie.

The tug of war

TUG-OF-WAR veterans’ team Thieving Gypsies upheld tradition by taking to the beach for the collective test-of-strength competition.

‘It’s just something we’ve always done,’ said captain Lee Allez.

The team brought to the beach a scaled-down version of its signature raft, which is made of, among other items, a gazebo.

‘We usually do a massive raft, usually a 32-ft raft,’ said Mr Allez.

‘But this year we’ve halved it because it’s hard to get it out of my garden.’

The fancy dress competition

ELISHA HORSEPOOL and Danni King were joint winners of the fancy dress competition.

‘I enjoyed doing the competition – it was fun,’ said three-year-old Elisha, who dressed as Ariel, the mermaid.

‘I like dressing up and brought the mermaid and a pirate costume down and I chose the mermaid one.’

She added that she would be showing off her medal to her classmates at the Seesaw Preschool.

Danni, six, came as a pink Power Ranger.

The stilt race

MASTERING the art of beach stilt walking is a question of balance, according to experienced competitor Aaron Lesbirel.

‘It’s just a matter of keeping your balance when you are walking,’ said the 12-year-old La Mare de Carteret Secondary pupil.

The competitors mostly found ‘slowly but surely’ to be the best way of remaining upright and mobile.

The greasy pole competition

THE challenge – a two-way fight to stay the longest on a slippery pole that has a rotating cover – took place on the beach.

‘You have to lock your legs around the bottom and then use your strength to knock the other person off,’ said 12-year-old Jack Yarwood, whose technique got the better of seven-year-old Jacob Hall.

Jacob said his older opponent had had an unfair size advantage.

‘It just was not fair because the bigger guy was with me,’ he said.

Jack added: ‘It’s a lot easier if you are bigger.’

He said he had improved his technique from last year.

‘I did this last year and did not do very well and went out in the first round.

I’ve done a lot better.’

The talent contest

SHOWBIZ starlets Eliza Collenette and Rosalie Falla were joint winners of the junior section of the competition.

‘We were doing Come to the Caberet. We chose it because we could do a very over-the-top dance and it went well with the music. And we could make it very fun,’ said 10-year-old Rosalie.

Eliza, nine, said they had practised long and hard to get the result.

The girls are pupils of the Guernsey Academy of Theatrical Education.

Sisters Luella and Morgan Taylor were placed joint second.

They impressed the crowd with a version of So Long Farewell, from The Sound of Music. Luella is also a Gate pupil.

Beach volleyball

BEACH volleyball returned to the regatta after three decades.

It was originally introduced to the event in the early 1970s but soon disappeared from the programme.

The trend was reversed on Saturday with the erection of adult and junior nets on the beach.

Guernsey Volleyball Association committee member Hayley Bougourd said: ‘We’ve probably had about 30 adults and 20 kids come down.

‘The people we’ve had playing have really enjoyed it today.

‘We’ve had some really good comments from people saying that they are glad we had it on today and that they really enjoyed it.

‘I definitely think we will carry this on next year.’