Ally Meredith, senior coach of the Island’s netball team, has two wishes for 2008.
First, to maintain his 100 per cent record in the inter-insular (Jersey beat Guernsey last year, away from home and this year’s game is in Jersey on 16 March) and to maintain Jersey’s status in the South-West Premiership League.
‘We’re nice and safe at the moment, mid-table, and after the last series of matches all of the teams beneath us lost, which was good news.
So I would like to consolidate our place in the table,’ he explained.
For former powerboat world champion Roy Smith, he has two wishes for 2008: ‘First is to win our class in the Round Britain Race starting on 21 June.
The race is held over eight legs and we hope to be in the top ten, overall.
We’ve already derigged our 28ft Ocke Mannerfelt Batboat and in the New Year we will be starting to put it back together again.
‘This is a serious attempt and we’re in the RB4 class – up to five litres – which means the boats will get up to speeds in excess of 85 mph.
However, reliability is the name of the game – you have to complete every leg – and the first will be between Portsmouth and Plymouth; the last from Lowestoft to Portsmouth, 220 miles in one hit.
Overall there will be another 75 competitors in a race that was last held in 1984.
‘My other ambition is to win back the world championship in the 2 litre class.
That will be during the first week of September, in Guernsey.
There’ll be around 40 boats in my class and knowledge of the waters around Guernsey are of vital importance; so I predict I’ll be taking a holiday in Guernsey some time before the actual competition begins!’
Pistol shooter David Ward (who, to date, has 55 Island Games medals including six golds and five silvers from the last Games) believes he is entitled to three wishes as: ‘that’s the number you’re given if you meet up with a genie!’ So, his first wish is that ‘politics don’t interfere in sporting organisations and that the only requirement is good sportsmanship’.
He is particularly incensed that the Commonwealth Games Association will be following the Olympics organisation and cutting the number of pistol competitions by over a half.
‘I believe it went through at the last meeting.
The rapid, free, air and pairs matches have been done away with and it could be that the Island Games authorities follow suit,’ Ward added.
‘Why should we follow the line adopted by the Olympics? We don’t need the equivalent of three Olympic Games!’
His second wish is that the State would stop its ‘persecution’ of lawful firearm owners in Jersey.
‘Various members of the state are making it more and more difficult for legitimate arms owners to renew their licences,’ he said, adding that this has had a knock-on effect on the number of members there currently are in the Island’s firearms clubs.
Finally, Ward believes that the £12m allocated for a range at Woolwich, for the 2012 Olympics, should be spent more wisely.
‘They’re spending that amount of money on a range which, three weeks later, will be bulldozed and never used again,’ said Ward.
‘It would be a far better move to spend ?12m updating Bisley.
‘That’s what the shooters want; and in turn it means that the 2012 Olympics would leave a lasting legacy.’
Athletics development officer Andrew Winnie has a wish list which extends mainly to the Island’s younger, unsung heroes; the athletes who are gradually working their way through the national rankings but whose names are generally unknown by the rest of the Island.
‘There are a lot of them; so I just hope that they reach their potential,’ said Winnie.
‘Jersey Spartan has a thriving group of youngsters, but you can’t read inside their heads and what an athlete is capable of at 13 may well change just one year later.
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‘Even so, there are some excellent athletes working their way through.’ Although reluctant to name names – partly because there are so many juniors who are proving themselves at national level – he mentions Marc Alner (13) who’s moved into No 3 position in the UK at high jump, plus his friends Hugo Barrett, also in the top 20 in hurdles and Thomas Morgan, a sprinter.
Then there is Zane Duquemin in the discus and his sister, Shadine, No 1 in her age group at both discus and shot.
‘But we’re desperately short of coaches,’ added Winnie.
‘So part of my wish list is for people to turn up at the weekend to train them.
They don’t need to be trained; it’s largely a matter of supervision.
‘There’s a huge amount of potential in the club with the likes of Jenna Murphy, Gemma Dawkins and Kathryn Rothwell and some of these youngsters have the potential to represent England in the 2012 Olympics.
However, what’s important to them now might not be the same in a year’s time; so much of it is down to whether or not they want it badly enough.’
For Leonis ABC’s coach Dave Thompson, his 2008 wish list has already come true.
After three years without a regular venue, he has been guaranteed three dates at the new Radisson Hotel on the Waterfront.
‘We’ve at least two dates booked; one for February, one for April and maybe another one for May.
We should be able to attract an audience of between 450 and 500 people,’ he said.
His club is also thriving, with up to 90 boxers training at the South Hill gym, including more youngsters that ever who, eventually, will be given the chance of seeing their name on a boxing bill.
For Chris Minty, who has seen cricket blossom under his stewardship as JCB director of cricket, his ‘wish list’ for 2008 is brisk and straightforward.
‘For Jersey to finish in the first two places of the World Cricket League and for continued success which we’ve enjoyed in recent years, from youngsters up to senior level,’ he said.
Meanwhile for Dai Burton, director of coaching at Jersey RFC, he hopes for pretty much the same as the first half of he season – an unbeaten record and, hopefully, winning promotion.
‘I’d like a continuation of what’s gone before,’ he said.
‘I enjoy watching the players playing the game and enjoying what they’re doing.
I would also like to see us play the same type of exciting rugby and, at the end of the season, not only winning promotion but also regaining the Siam Cup which we’ve only ?loaned? to Guernsey.
It’s time we regained it, to bring it back to its rightful place here in Jersey!’
Former hockey development officer Shelagh Herbert is enjoying her sport at the moment, and is also enjoying her participation in coaching the Island’s men’s team.
‘I’d like there to be more numbers in hockey in 2008,’ she said, ‘but this year I’ve enjoyed becoming more and more involved with the Island’s men’s team.
I’d like them to do even better in the national league in 2008 and, for myself, as long as the body still works, I’ll carry on playing for as long as I can.’
Watching daughter Beckie play for Great Britain in the Beijing Olympics is obviously another major hope.
In terms of golf, Tommy Horton, now in his 60s, has no intention of retiring – unless he has to.
He was annoyed at finishing at the bottom of the pecking order in his last Seniors outing but rightly puts that down to ill-health at the time.
So his 2008 wish list is at least one more crack at the Seniors Golf Tour; a tour he made virtually his own from 1991 onwards when, having turned 50, he won 23 competitions and five times topped the Seniors Tour Order of Merit.
Although a keen footballer in his youth, Senator Mike Vibert, now the Minister of Education, Sport and Culture, views next year’s sporting calendar with a great deal of interest.
‘I’d like our bobsleigh team to slide into the national ratings,’ he said, ‘while our cricketers have forged ahead in their sport.
If Bermuda can do it, and win promotion onto the world stage, why not Jersey?’
He also hopes that the JRFC will win promotion and, always aware of the Island’s internal and external sporting problems, wishes only the best for Jersey football.
‘We need a meaningful programme for them to progress,’ he said.
It would be nice to see them following in the same vein as our cricketers.
I would like to see our footballers having a clear vision ahead.’
President of the JFA, Ricky Weir, agrees with the Senator.
‘We’re looking forward to the chairman of the FA, Geoff Thompson coming to Jersey on 9 January,’ he said.
‘And we’re looking to more meaningful fixtures for our men’s and women’s football teams including a game against the Premiership Reading’s reserves in February.
We’re also hoping to host a four-island women’s football tournament, including Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight during the May Bank Holiday.’
Meanwhile, from the world of tennis, Caesarean Club’s Ian Morgan would like to see more players taking part in his sport; a major sponsor for the Jersey Senior Open in August and, not surprisingly, a win against Guernsey.
‘We drew 12-all with them last year,’ he explained, which means that because they won the trophy the year before, they keep it.
So this year we’d like it back again!’
Finally, Jersey could be represented in tennis, athletics and swimming at the Youth Commonwealth Games to be held in Pune in India in October and AIB Tigers’ coach, Paul du Feu, who is pencilled in as assistant team manager, is looking forward to the occasion.
In terms of swimmers he said: ‘Realistically our swimmers have, first, to make the nationals but that isn’t beyond some of them.
After that they have to prove to be among the top in their age groups.
But again, it isn’t beyond them.
Nothing’s been pencilled in at the moment and I’ve no idea what else I’ll be asked to do in 2008.’
With the Jeux des Iles bound to attract another large portion of Jersey youngsters, this time to be held in Guadeloupe in May; 2008 promises to be a busy time for sports fans; not least because the Jeux des Iles coincides with Jersey Cricket hosting their first ever World Cricket League Division V tournament before the JCB also hosts the ICC European under-15 Division I championship, between 4 and 7 August.
