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Ready for the friendly Games
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However, the challenge of beating all-comers will be greater than ever before at the 16th ‘Friendly Games’ now about to get under way in far-off Bermuda.
As anyone connected with sport – and a great many other Islanders – will understand, the cost of travelling to this year’s games has proved prohibitive for many competitors and their representative organisations. We have therefore sent a team of only 81, and a range of sports, including badminton, football, basketball and volleyball, are unrepresented.
In one respect, this might amount to good news. The pressure on the team as a whole to win more medals than any of the other competing islands will surely be reduced. But in other respects the size of the team will have no bearing whatsoever on its contribution to the event. Athletes in all disciplines will have the customary opportunity to promote the core spirit of the games – that famous measure of friendliness. And they will have the additional opportunity to perform as ambassadors for the Island and to pave the way for the 2015 games here in Jersey, when many will be hosts as well as contestants.
It goes almost without saying that the best wishes of the Island go out to the team and that its endeavours will be followed avidly here at home. It is to be hoped that competition at this level and the interest it spurs will also help to reinforce an idea that many will say is self-evident – that sport is an integral part of the Jersey way of life and that in all its forms it deserves all the support, from government and elsewhere, that it can command.
In this context, the continuing backing from NatWest richly merits a mention. Without the bank’s contribution this coming-together of sporting communities would not be possible.
Finally, as we wish our team every success, we must also wish Bermuda good fortune in flying the Island Games flag. This Atlantic outpost might be a relatively late addition to the games family, but it will be as proud as any of its siblings in sport to uphold such a fine tradition.
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