New league arrives

GUERNSEY champions C&W Rovers begin their quest for Channel Islands honours against St Ouen tomorrow as the new CI Club Championship swings into action. Now extended to a two-group round robin format rather than a straight knockout, the competition pits the best four clubs from both islands against each other with group matches being played over July and August and with the semi-finals and final on the first two weekends of September.

Rovers will be playing their first match at the College Field while at the KGV, Clubhouse Optimists face Old Victorians. Total Cobo and PKF Wanderers travel to Jersey to face Romeril's and Sporting Club Francais respectively.

KPMG CI Ltd Chartered Accountants has been announced as the sponsors of the new competition for an initial two-year period with an option to extend the deal for a further year.

The company will also sponsor the Sid Guy Trophy for the fifth and sixth place sides from the Jersey Weekend League and Guernsey's Randy Paddle Mavericks and a Division One Select side.

'The expansion of the inter-island competition is a very welcome development in both islands as the season's momentum progresses from the domestic qualifying league to the new competition,' said GCA weekend representative Dave Piesing.

'The eventual winners of the CI Club Championship will have had to play very well on a consistent basis to win what will be an extremely tough competition.

'The high inter-island travel costs are an obvious obstacle to such a competition and it simply wouldn't have been possible to expand it without this valuable sponsorship deal from KPMG.

We are also very grateful to Aurigny for their assistance in putting together the travel arrangements, ' said Piesing.