Lyndsey Woodward will play in her first Island Games since Aland in 1991

JERSEY will take one of its youngest ever badminton teams to the Island Games in Aland at the end of the month.

Six out of the ten-strong team will be aged 17 or 18 and will be making their Island Games debuts. And three of those youngsters will be following in the footsteps of parents who all featured in the badminton team which competed in the first ever Island Games in the Isle of Man 24 years ago.

Of the six youngsters two of them, Tom Gibbs and Katharine Thornton, are currently at university while the remaining four, Ben Watson, Alex Hutchings, Jade Coombs-Goodfellow and Marilisa Garnier, are all studying for A Levels.

Watson’s parents Steve and Jane, Coombs-Goodfellow’s father Ian, and Gibbs’ father Andy all took part in the first Island Games.

The youngsters are joined in the team by four senior players who have a wealth of Island Games experience between them: Chris Cotillard, who brought back gold medals from Shetland in the men’s and mixed doubles; Kim Ashton, who took silver in the ladies’ singles; Gavin Carter, who helped the team to gold at the same Games; and Lyndsey Woodward, who returns to the Games with her only other appearance being when Aland last hosted them in 1991.

Jersey team: Gavin Carter (capt), Chris Cotillard, Tom Gibbs, Alex Hutchings, Ben Watson, Kim Ashton, Jade Coombs-Goodfellow, Marilisa Garnier, Katherine Thornton, and Lyndsey Woodward.