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Sportspeople have welcomed the news of a prompt restart of competitive action.
Moving to Stage 3 signals the resumption of countless leagues, trophies, cups and competitions. While many islanders across the Bailiwick have used their lockdown exercise time to go walking, jogging or sea-swimming, the lack of competitive action has been missed.
Graham Chester, Operations Director at the Guernsey Sport Commission, is upbeat about the prospect of a resumption of sporting activity across the island.
“It’s very important for sports to resume," her said. "Sport plays an integral part in lots of islanders’ lives and for the sake of their physical and mental health it is vitally important to resume as soon as possible.
“Lots of people have been out and about training, which is great, but you can’t beat the added ingredient of competition to make the experience so much more satisfying.”
Throughout the second lockdown, the GSC relaunched its PE At Home initiative – a series of YouTube videos focussed on 16 core fundamental movement skills for schoolchildren. It helped keep island children active and involved with sports.
Pictured: The Guernsey Sports Commission kept island schoolchildren active with a series of online videos.
One of GSC’s sport-specific development officers is Ben Ferbrache, also the Cricket Development Manager at the Guernsey Cricket Board. He has been running PE courses via live-streaming platforms, as well as hosting sports podcasts.
He says that cricket is well placed to run its forthcoming season almost on schedule.
“We are intending to start the domestic league near enough on time; it will likely only be a two-week delay.”
This summer, Guernsey Cricket hopes to be able to travel to Finland to compete in a sub-regional qualifying tournament for the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup.
Other sports bodies have been weighing up how to complete their winter seasons which were put on hold by the latest lockdown.
Pictured: Ben Ferbrache will be aiming for plenty more runs when the cricket season gets under way.
Jason Robilliard, President of Guernsey Hockey, said: “The Guernsey Hockey Board have been holding weekly Zoom meetings during lockdown and have been discussing at length how we come out the other side. Our plan is to complete all league and cup fixtures and we intend to extend the season to accommodate this.”
The hockey season will restart quickly, with the first matches on the weekend of 27 and 28 March. Subject to CCA guidance on travel, Guernsey may even take teams across to Jersey for an inter-insular in September.
The only concern now for island sportspeople is they do not have long to shift any lockdown pounds...
Pictured top: Guernsey Hockey restarts its women’s and men’s league matches promptly after the move to Stage 3.
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