Triple-header reality

DAVE DOREY has carried out his pledge to reform the fixtures schedule ahead of the new season. The old-style format was slated last season when clubs were left with an irregular and messy programme of matches, particularly at Priaulx League level.

Dorey, who despite standing down as Guernsey Football Association chief executive has agreed to remain as the association's fixtures secretary, presented a back-to-the-future draft set of fixtures at the GFA annual meeting on Thursday night.

In a throwback to football's pre-floodlight days, three out of every four Priaulx League matches will be played on Saturday afternoons next season.

There will be triple-headers - three Priaulx games on one day - on 18 Saturdays between 6 September and 3 April.

And the vast majority of the 21 Priaulx matches not scheduled on Saturdays will be played as double or triple-headers on Tuesday nights.

Not a single Priaulx League fixture has been arranged for a Sunday, the day set aside for almost all Jackson League games.

Some Youth One matches will also be played on Sundays, but most have been set for midweek.

Railway League games retain their traditional Saturday afternoon slot, while fixtures in the Youth Two and the new Youth Three divisions have been given two-week windows during which clubs should themselves arrange a definite date.

The season will kick off on Tuesday 19 August when champions Vale Rec face prime challengers Sylvans in the Martinez Cup.

Sylvans will start the Priaulx League campaign the following Saturday with a home match against Rovers, but the main top-flight action will not get under way until a fortnight later.

Vale start their title defence at Rovers on Saturday 6 September, the day of the first Priaulx triple-header.

Rangers face Northerners and Sylvans play Belgrave Wanderers on the same day.

The pick of the September league fixtures involve Sylvans, who face North at home on Saturday 20 September, St Martin's away three days later and Vale Rec away just seven days after that.

Meanwhile, the Le Vallee Cup has been rescheduled as an early-season competition to avoid the farce of recent seasons when clubs have rested almost entire first teams having reached an unwanted final on New Year's Day.

The 2003/4 Le Vallee Cup final will be played on Tuesday 16 September, one week after the first cup final of the season, the Rawlinson.

New island manager Steve Ogier's first game will be against the Naval Air Command in the Malaya Cup on Saturday 4 October.

Guernsey start their South- West Counties Championship senior campaign against Wiltshire in the UK on Saturday 8 November.