GUERNSEY hosts an alternative Island Games next week with more than 100 visitors here to play squash and bowls. The two sports, excluded from this year’s Island Games and the 2009 event, have teamed up to organise their own event.

Bowls sees singles, pairs and fours action with teams from Alderney, Shetland, Orkney, Western Isles, Ynys Mon, Isle of Man and Isle of Wight.

Beau Sejour will see Guernsey, Jersey, Bermudian and Cayman Islands squash players contest team, doubles and singles competitions.

The last includes world-ranked individuals appearing in the singles competition only.

The alternative games dates back to early discussions held in the 2005 Shetland Islands Games, said bowls executive Garry Collins, who has been general coordinator of the week.

‘Guernsey and Jersey are lucky in bowls in that we get to play world events as a country in our own right,’ he said. ‘For many of the smaller islands, the Island Games is their big, prime event in the calendar.

‘We have taken the bull by the horns in hosting this and hopefully it can continue – for them more than for us.’

Collins said that it was no surprise that bowls kept slipping out of the Island Games picture.

‘We are staging a British Isles competition here and that’s the problem with bowls in the Island Games – it’s very strong in Britain, but not outside of it.

‘In some of these islands there are no facilities for bowls and so it won’t appear in the bid document and there’s always going to be a gap for us.’

Social events will be jointly staged for competitors from both sports.

Peter Bridgeman, the director of island squash, has organised his side of the event.

‘It’s not the same as the Island Games, but I think the format we have got is, certainly for squash, better than we could have hoped for.

‘It is important for us to attract competition to the island wherever we can. It should be a fantastic week of squash.’

Guernsey, Jersey, Cayman and a Wales Select side will contest the team event.

Isle of Wight will also take part in the doubles and the singles competition includes Guernsey’s world-ranked player Chris Simpson, Australian Aaron Frankcomb, who is ranked just ahead of him at 51, and English players Shaun Le Roux and Jon Harford.

‘With these players involved, this is like a B event on the world stage,’ said Bridgeman.

* The bowls event, at the Hougue du Pommier stadium, starts on Monday and runs until Friday.

* The squash starts on Sunday and matches generally take place at lunchtimes and in the evenings until Friday.