Island team will need real support in Delhi

‘So no, I don’t believe that 22 officials is over the top – because if we are going to compete, then surely we ought to do our level best to make certain that every competitor has a chance of winning or of finishing as high up in their chosen sport as possible. Otherwise, why go there at all? Money is, and will always be an issue, but I don’t subscribe to the theory that it’s ‘the taking part’ which is more important than the (possible) winning or breaking Island records.’

Chris also takes a look at a record-breaking swim by Alison Wood (née Horsfall) and some recent cricket results – the first team winning the European Division 1 tournament at one level and the States’ side beating Guernsey on another.

He even discovered how Home Affairs Minister Ian Le Marquand had achieved a long-held ambition when he played against the Guernsey States’ team.

‘In conversation he (Ian) told me that, having scored 53 runs for the States’ side against Guernsey, he had waited 30 years to score his second 50 after his first, when he was a student at Victoria College. It’s tiring when you get past 50 (his age, not his runs!),’ he said. ‘And I reckon that, in all, I ran 90 runs with the incoming batsmen!’

• Read the full column in today’s Jersey Evening Post