STICK it to them, Jim. Would Guernsey not be a better place if all island politicians had the same matter-of-fact, true donkey belligerence of Jim Jamouneau?

When the anti-racing lobby met last week in a move to knobble Dobbin and co from racing just once a year at L’Ancresse, old Jim – diehard of the local scene and as Guernsey as Guernsey gets  – dug in his heels and told the horse racing consultant of Animal Aid to go and jump a few high fences – well, in a metaphorically, true-Sarnian way that is.

And I’m so glad he did.

Jim doesn’t do spin, doesn’t do sneaky politics, he just says what he thinks and if you don’t like it, well lump it is his attitude. I love him for it and it would be very interesting and pretty entertaining to see an Assembly full of Jim Jamouneaus.

‘We’ve been racing at L’Ancresse since Queen Victoria’s day,’ he reminded the anti-racing lobby here, (which if you added them together would not fill a Guernsey race card, they are so small and insignificant).

‘The number of accidents has been next to nothing and these people are only out to cause trouble,’ he added.

Yes Jim, go Jim…

One of those accidents was a big spill only a few years back and I was on the Les Amarreurs corner when it happened. It was not nice to see two, or was it three, galloping horses crash spectacularly in what was a dangerous dip.

Thankfully, nobody was injured and the Guernsey Race Club responded properly and diligently, filling in the dip, and all seems well – unless, of course, you choose to believe there is anything wrong, like Animal Aid.

The Guernsey Race Club, whose other main enemy are rabbits, work their socks off to stage this once-a-year event which brings so much entertainment to the community, and I cannot believe UK horse trainers would be bringing over their animals as they do, were L’Ancresse truly a threat.

It’s bonkers to suggest otherwise.

Sure, we are very unlikely to see Frankel breezing to victory along the run-in across Ladies’ Bay and Chouet, but we get to see the lesser talents do the job.

Perhaps Animal Aid should concentrate their efforts more on the dangers of horses being ridden on Guernsey’s ever madder, ever clogged, little roads, often by children. Now that is dangerous, although I tend to fall in line with the old Guernsey brigade thinking of why should a horse or a bicycle be given less consideration than a car?

If I were riding a horse down a leafy lane I would make the cars wait, too.

Long live horse racing at L’Ancresse and if you ever think of standing for the States Jim, you have my vote.

*

PERHAPS Tim Darwin, president of the Jersey Football Combination, should think about joining Animal Aid. He, too, has come forward with some bonkers this week.

On the subject of Guernsey FC and Priaulx League clubs being weakened by the fantastically popular community club’s explosion onto the local football scene, Darwin came out with an ‘I told you so’ type of response and said Jersey clubs would not wish to go the same way and they want to keep their elite players together because it gives their league strength.

Now there is a surprise.

Shock, horror: the Jersey clubs are not pushing for a red-and-white onslaught of the UK league ladder.

Of course they are not. It would be akin to turkeys voting for Christmas.

Guernsey FC would never have got through here had it not been for the overwhelming desire of the top players to want this once-in-a-career, landscape-changing opportunity to better themselves.

The Priaulx clubs would have happily done without it but had no choice but to cave in to the very people who matter most – the players.

And, do you know what? I bet if you asked a similar number of elite Jersey footballers would they wish a similar opportunity to our Green Lions personnel, and their answer would be a widespread yes, yes, yes. The Jersey Combination has been on a slippery slope for years and it has been proven by Guernsey clubs’ domination in recent seasons.

When I started out in this job, and for the vast majority of the time since, Jersey club football had far more depth to it than ours. They benefited from an influx of overseas talent we never enjoyed to anywhere near the same extent.

But since the millennium, the sister isle have lost their traditional club strength and managed to dominate the Muratti through luck and our own ineptitude on occasion.

Jersey youth football seems to be well advanced of our own, which remains a big worry of mine but not seemingly among the GFA, but in senior club terms their standards have slipped at a more alarming rate than our own.

Perhaps it will take a couple of quality Jersey players to move here to further their playing careers to convince the blinkered JFA and JFC officials that they need to do something in response to the Green Lions, but my experience is that it is not in the Jerseyman’s nature to follow Guernsey sporting impulses.

*

EVENING cricket has taken a big hit in recent years.

Now it’s the turn of euchre, a sport as Guernsey as our friend Jim Jamouneau.

The Guernsey United League has suffered so many withdrawals that this winter the old Stacey Division has bit the dust and the league now only has four flights.

Officials are said to be very worried by the trend and are even staging euchre workshops to try and invigorate the sport, and get the youngsters to replace their fathers and grandfathers in the traditional Thursday night out. But I fear for them.

I think that the fall in numbers has more to do with the drink-drive clampdown, which has hurt local evening cricket so hard this past decade. I wish the GUEL all the luck because euchre is part of our heritage, but I feel they may have a poor hand when the police hold the joker and both bowers.

• Euchre Workshops are open to all ages from 10 years old upwards.
• For the total novice, beginner or improver.
• Open workshops are at: Monday evenings 7-9pm at North British Legion and Saturday mornings 10am-12noon at Wayside Cheer Hotel.