Sark’s autumn flower and produce show – seemingly a catalyst for bad weather, despite the fantastic display. (0038091)

WHEN it comes to weather forecasting, I am about as useful as a chocolate fireguard, but people here seem highly adept at it, if a couple of conversations I had last week are anything to go by.

Twice in as many hours I was told that Thursday and Friday of last week weren’t going to bring us the kindest of weather and, as it says in the Good Book – at least I think it does – lo, and it came to pass.

Both days were fairly miserable and as I was discussing this at the weekend with a third Sarkee, I happened to mention the two people who had been so accurate with their weather forecasting. Ah, that’s nothing to do with forecasting, I was told – it’s because the autumn flower and produce show was held on those days and it’s a pretty safe bet to predict that the weather is going to be lousy. It always is.

Others have since told me that bad weather isn’t always the case when the show is on, but I have to say that I felt a measure of sympathy for those whose hard work put on yet another magnificent display.

Sadly, when I called in to have a look around, there were only a handful of people there and most of those were residents, with visitors conspicuous by their absence – both at the show and elsewhere.

Still, as I write the weather is as perfect as it can be and I heard that Sark and its businesses welcomed about 250 people today, so it can’t all be bad.

Peter Roffey was the Sark Chamber of Commerce’s guest speaker last week and I have to say that times have certainly changed since I first interviewed him more than 30 years ago and, as he recalled with a smile, dubbed him ‘the angry young man of Guernsey politics’.

His talk was interesting and very well received. He seemed to advocate not rocking the Guernsey boat too much – easily said when the impression in that island seems to be one of viewing Sark as a disreputable nuisance.

Perhaps he’d like to have a quiet word with his former colleagues who now form the Policy Council and suggest that it is a mite discourteous to tell Sark politicians to wait several months for a two-hour meeting, as was disclosed at the July meeting of Chief Pleas.

Co-operation is by definition a two-way thing and although Sark politicians are the most reasonable of people, even they on occasions can have limited patience and don’t like Sark being viewed – as one conseiller succinctly put it – as a theme park for lobster lunches and little else.

In common with the other islands, Sark’s national sport seems to be shooting and last Saturday saw the first John Jackson Memorial Shoot at the clay pigeon range he created.

Almost 40 shooters took part – three-quarters of them from Guernsey – and the result was a three-way tie between Guernsey’s Cliff Le Pelley and Andy Mahy and Sark’s Nick Dewe, with Andy winning the shoot-off. Polly Babbe took the ladies’ trophy, while Richard Harrison and Jacques Perree respectively took the veteran and junior trophies.

Before I close, the family fun day held in the field to the north of The Avenue raised more than £1,000, as well as providing residents with the opportunity to soak Sark Estate Management’s Kevin Delaney with wet sponges. The money will be shared between the RNLI, Channel Islands Air Search, the Professor Saint Medical Trust and the Sark Fire and Rescue Service.

The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.