Basketball: Games groups decided

The Island’s men, meanwhile, have pulled a reasonable-looking group, along with Gibraltar and Gotland.

The draw was held at RBSI in Bath Street with the media in full attendance for one of the most popular, crowd-pleasing, sports in the Games, which will be hosted at Fort Regent.

Jersey’s ladies are making their first appearance at a Games since 2001 in the Isle of Man, where they finished fifth in a group of six, so the competition will prove a real test – particularly with their group containing the reigning gold medallists (Menorca) and bronze winners (Guernsey) from the last women’s event in the Isle of Wight in 2011.

The ladies’ competition consists of two groups of four, with the top two from each advancing to the semi-finals.

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This is the eighth time the sport has been held in the Games, only missing out once, in Sheltland in 2005, since being introduced in Gotland (the first Games sponsored by NatWest) in 1999.

Basketball organiser for Jersey 2015, Rob Honey, seemed pleased with his home Island’s men’s draw with Gibraltar and Gotland, the second of four groups of three. The top two in each group go forward to contest the quarter-finals.

Jersey have certainly avoided the big guns in the opening stages, with Bermuda, winners for the last three games, in a tough group along with Cayman and Froya. Guernsey’s men, meanwhile, have drawn the powerful Menorca side, as well as the Faroes.

Jersey’s men’s coach Pawel Zalewski said: ‘It looks a good draw on paper but so do fish and chips!

‘I’m happy with it and our target is to improve on eighth which is where the men finished in the Isle of Wight in 2011.

‘Unfortunately I missed that through injury and the last time I played in 2009 we had a really tough group with favourites Bermuda and Cayman Islands in it.

‘As I say, it’s a good draw; the seedings give everyone a chance and we’ll go out and look to do our best and hopefully improve on our position from two years ago.

‘We are shortly to start three training sessions a week, we have a couple of matches arranged in Derby and we also have the inter-insular against Guernsey to look forward to as well.’

The draws were made by NatWest’s Steve Camm, Ian Goddard, the president of the Jersey Basketball Association, Jersey 2015 organising committee chairman Phil Austin and Games director Steve Bailey.