Come on Culture and Leisure, get off the fence

The latest posturing of the Vale Commons Council would be laughable if it were not so lamentable against a group of people who are well aware of their financial responsibilities to the upkeep of the area as a whole but, quite rightly, do not wish to be held to ransom by a body which, if push really came to shove, may not even have the power they believe they have.

Yes, it is high time the question of a modern-day rent was put to bed, but as both sides are quite obviously some way apart in what is the correct figure, it surely is time Culture and Leisure took a hard line and earned their corn. But that worries me.

C and L have had long enough to get this disagreement sorted and yet have not shown any real leadership, their own dithering having played into the hands of the Commons Council who have now, cleverly, mischievously perhaps, set this very imminent deadline of the end of the year.

C and L must have an opinion on this and it is high time they made that official viewpoint clear.

I believe they would back the golfers for a whole host of reasons, not least the necessity of an island with an image for being at the forefront of finance and more than punching its weight in the world of sport, to have an golf course of championship length and properly maintained to that standard.

It is fanciful to imagine a wholly municipal course replacing what we have now and, anyway, who would run it?

The Commons Council?

I think that might well be beyond them.

The Common is big enough for golf and for the myriad of other pastimes it currently allows.

Golf should be allowed to continue unaffected at the right price decided by government.

BACK in the early part of the 20th century your good old and innovative Guernsey Press ran a domestic pools competition of sorts.

Guess the score was the idea and at a time when the sport was fast becoming a mass draw for the local public who did not have an awful lot to do on Thursday and Saturday afternoons, it seemed to prove popular.

More than a hundred years on we might consider reviving it as the 2014 Priaulx League is sufficiently unpredictable to make such a competition worthwhile.

The season is still in its relative infancy but it has got me glued.

Every weekend goes by with an unlikely set of results and expect no different from this weekend's triple-header where I fancy a home win for Sylvans and score draws at Northfield and the Corbet Field.

I will probably be hopelessly wrong as I was in expecting North to edge past neighbours Vale Rec last Friday night, only to be soundly beaten by a Rec team inspired by what I considered one of the best and complete midfield performances witnessed for some while.

Nick Rumens was excellent, his partnership with the effervescent Jack Smith proving all too much for a North outfit who might wish to reconsider their midfield composition on the basis of this showing.

Rumens' performance encapsulated all the features of a perfect midfield performance: perfect passing, composure, energy, strength and goals.

He linked everything and his effort was of sufficient quality to suggest to me that playing Ryman Isthmian football would well suit the Old Elizabethan.

GFC are not blessed with holding midfield players after all, certainly when Angus Mackay is suffering from one of his all-too-frequent injuries.

But the big question is this – would Rumens be good enough to make his way into the Bels midfield quartet of Joby Bourgaize, Simon Marley, Ant Austen and Scott Bradford?

Well, while all four of those Belgraves are undoubtedly decent players, when yours truly jotted down 11 names this week to represent a Dream Priaulx league XI of autumn 2014, none of them was included.

All seven clubs were represented and it might infuriate Bels fans, but I only found space for one of their current squad, Lewis Germain, who I'd utilise on the left of a back four in this XI playing 4-1-3-2: Jacub Machlowski (Rangers), Darren Martin (North), Damien Larkin (Vale Rec), Richard Powell (Rovers), Lewis Germain (Bels), Nick Rumens (Vale Rec), Jack Smith (Vale Rec), Matt Le Prevost (Sylvans), Ryan Lamb (North), Simon Tostevin (North) and Sam Murray (Sylvans).