Ex-England international Ian Sullivan has been putting the island’s top players through their paces since his arrival in Guernsey. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0645576)

GUERNSEY badminton remains committed to fielding two county sides in the south of England area. At the time of Paul Le Tocq’s departure as development officer, he had suggested the island would revert to just one side in the inter-counties league.

But, said GBA president John Stuart, there is no change.

‘There is a nucleus of committed players and we hope to provide this higher level of competition to two levels of players as a development tool. This is being encouraged by the arrival in the island of Ian Sullivan, who is an ex-England international and who is not only going to be playing but is also putting the top players through their paces in running much of the physical training aspect.

‘Several players who have trained through the summer months were given a stark wake-up call when he took the first training session of the season. There were many complaints of very sore leg muscles the following day. But [it was] a good benchmark of what level of training is expected.’

There have been changes to the inter-insular selection process, with now one overall selection committee replacing the previous three separate ones. It  oversees the picking of the island’s top two senior teams and veterans’ side.