Today we reveal the first three to be shortlisted for the Flybe Island Heroes award, run in association with the Jersey Evening Post.
The five judges who chose the shortlist were Advocate Chris Renouf, Ian Taylor, Matt Le Tissier, David Edwards and Derek de la Haye.
The other finalists will be featured tomorrow and Friday and readers can vote an unlimited number of times using original voting forms which will be printed in Saturday’s JEP. The winners, who will receive a £5,000 cash prize and £5,000 in Flybe travel vouchers, will be invited to attend a prizegiving ceremony at Government House on Tuesday 9 December.
• Picture: Judges Ian Taylor, Matt Le Tissier and David Edwards
Jersey Junior Golf Foundation
THE foundation was established over 30 years ago in a bid to help the development of junior golfers in the Island.
It is now responsible for the entire junior golf set-up, running all competitions, managing the PwC School of Excellence scheme, and thanks to an affiliation with the Hampshire Golf Union arranging for golfers to go for trials and compete in Hampshire.
Couple of weeks
‘We have a strong squad of juniors but they are still a far way behind English competitors,’ said Junior Golf chairman Peter Crenan. ‘In England they can play on four or five courses in the space of a couple of weeks whereas we’d just be playing at La Moye or the Royal.
‘With more finances available we could not only send the juniors to Hampshire more often but enter them in competitions outside of the area. We need to send more junior golfers to the mainland to compete and gain experience because we are quite isolated over here.’
There are around 60 juniors involved in the foundation, of which 14 feature in the excellence squad, and numerous former members are still pursuing the sport.
Gyles Robin, Olivia Jordan-Higgins, and Seb Brown are currently playing in America, Andy Gray is representing Bournemouth University, Sam Crenan and Steven Anderson are part of the Hampshire School of Excellence, Paul Aitkens is studying an official teaching course at The Belfry, and two former juniors are professionals with local clubs – Charles Le Sueur at La Moye, and Adam Jones with Les Ormes.
• Picture: One of the things that the Jersey Junior Golf Foundation is responsible for is the PWC School of Excellence team
Jersey Learning Difficulties Football Team
IT’S not every day you can win a football competition at your first attempt but that’s exactly what happened to Angie Nicholson’s side five years ago.
Since that success the team, which is part of the St Paul’s Group and comes under the umbrella of the Jersey Sports Association for the Disabled, has gone from strength to strength and now has over 25 players, both male and female, ranging from the ages of 14 to over 40.
It is the only football club in the Island that caters for players with learning difficulties and while Angie is the manager she is helped by dedicated trainers Gary Norman and Phil Watson.
Competition comes at the annual JSAD Games and from a yearly trip to England. In 2006 and 2007 they took part in a tournament at Manchester United’s former training ground, The Cliff, and in their first year were presented with finalist medals by United player Gary Neville. This year they went to the Harrogate Annual Disability Football Tournament.
‘These events have been a tremendous success and throughout our visits the players’ behaviour was exemplary and they were a huge credit not only to the club, but also to Jersey,’ said Mark Jones, tour organiser.
‘Even though we lack experience compared to teams in England, we are still producing quality players and are doing extremely well,’ said Angie.
‘We like to take all our players away but they are mostly on limited incomes, and we also need a lot of support staff when we travel so if we secured the bursary we wouldn’t have as much pressure to fundraise and would be open to taking part in more events.’
Charlotte Manning
THERE are not many 14-year-olds who would be willing to get up at 4 am five times a week to do exercise. But determined swimmer Charlotte Manning is one teenager who is not put off by the early starts.
A member of Tigers Swimming Club, she swims six days a week in sessions both before and after school, except for Wednesdays, and from 10.30 am to 4.15 pm at the weekend.
But for the Haute Vallée student it’ is hard work that’ is paying off as she achieved a PB time in the 200m breaststroke final at this year’s Commonwealth Youth Games in India, despite being four years off the age limit.
She also took a haul of medals from two Jeux des Iles competitions – firstly a bronze medal in Corsica last year and three silvers and a bronze from Guadeloupe this year.
Charlotte’s mother, Alison, remembers her ‘quickly progressing’ in learn-to-swim classes, so much so that after only a few weeks she was advised to join a swimming club.
Charlotte’s nominator, Judith Beaumont, describes her as having a ‘phenomenal’ dedication to the sport and someone who ‘lives and breaths swimming’.
The current British age group rankings show her to be 15th and 11th in the short course 100m and 200m breaststroke events, respectively, and 21st and 14th in the long course 100m and 200m breast-stroke.
Charlotte now hopes to make the Jersey team for next year’s Island Games in Aland, and to be at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Article posted on 12th November, 2008 - 2.56pm
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