ST HELIER Constable Simon Crowcroft’s policy of encouraging cycling in St Helier is paying big dividends.

Even though there are a terrific number of spots to leave your bikes now, most of them are normally taken – and I’m not complaining about that, because I love my bike and try to cycle whenever I can.

However, I feel that for some motorists, this is now the open season to deny cyclists the right to pedal on the road.

The law says that you cannot overtake when another car is coming towards you, but from my experience, many drivers ignore this and force you perilously close into the gutter. And even when you give clear hand signals, they often ignore you.

A car is a large, huge bullet. A rider on a bike is just a vulnerable person. And that’s why a friend of mine, former Jersey Rugby Club full-back Paul Vallance, doesn’t ride his any more. ‘Too many cars not taking any account of how they can do terrible harm to me,’ he says as an explanation.

And I agree with him. The trouble is, my bike is one of my best friends, so I’m not going to give up on it. Well, not until I get jammed in a road accident!

I speak to Jersey RFC head coach Ben Harvey at least twice a week. He has been a tremendous ambassador for the club and I know that the administrators and players rate him extremely highly. However, at times he is so laidback, he’s almost horizontal.

Having beaten National II South leaders Ealing 15-0 away from home at the weekend, he was laconic in the way he described the game. In fact, I had to rewrite my report on the match not once, but three times, because of the way he described it. He was that off-beat.

Yet Ealing are a side who have spent tens of thousands of pounds on a squad who will almost certainly gain promotion at the end of the season, with only Jersey having beaten them – and not once, but twice.

Two Donovan Sanders tries, two kicks by Mike Le Bourgeois and the game was won. I would have loved to be there. The way the team are playing at the moment, it’s just a pleasure to watch.

Jersey are winning games not just because of the tries they score, but more for the way they defend and the way they no longer concede unnecessary penalties, which was a habit of theirs only two years ago.

They are a terrific team, both in attack and defence, and I would advise anyone interested in top-line sport to turn up at St Peter whenever Jersey are playing. There is indeed little doubt who the team of the month is. It’s Jersey.

ONE of my favourite football competitions is the FA Cup. Some clubs use it as a means of blooding their younger players, but I actually think that the competition is one of the highlights of the FA season.

For the first FA Cup competition in the 1871-2 season, only 15 clubs took part. This season more than 700 clubs competed. All of which brings me to Crawley.
They are a small town whose normal attendances are in the hundreds rather than thousands. Yet this Blue Square Conference side took Manchester United to the limit, only losing by one goal in the fifth round.

But then again, Crawley beat my home club, Derby County, 1-0.
All of which means that the magic of the FA Cup is that smaller clubs and their supporters can live the dream.

And one day, a club like Crawley will actually get to the final because, in football, dreams can become reality.

The Jeux des Iles. Two weeks ago I suggested that they had little relevance to the Island, only to be hauled over the coals by half a dozen readers, including Chris Band, the president of the Jersey Table Tennis Association, who wrote this:
‘Standards in all the sports have risen as a legacy from those returning, with both athletes and coaches from each Games passing their experiences on to their peers and colleagues.

‘How much is a Jeux des Isles medal worth? I can’t believe that you are asking this. The Jeux des Iles is the only tournament where top Jersey youngsters can participate in a proper international atmosphere with, into the bargain, important cultural, social and educational skills being learned. How much is a Jeux des Iles medal worth? Just ask the kids!

‘I also have to advise you that I have been contacted by a large number of irate parents from various sports who are very angry about your comments. I told them that I was going to write to you to await comments.’

So, I apologise. But then again, the reason why I questioned the Games in the first place was because there is one sports coach in Jersey who has told me that they have no serious purpose and are actually an interference to his sport, while in the UK, scarcely

anyone knows about the Jeux des Iles. They are very much islanders’ games.
But having said that, my apologies are sincere because of the number of people who have contacted me to say how valuable they feel the Jeux des Iles are.
And Chris Band is right in one respect. He grumbled at me because I’ve never been to a Jeux des Iles. But then again, I’ve never been to an Olympic Games either!