Be warned: It may only be downhill from here

It has been another sporting year to savour in which the Sarnians have ruled the roost over the Caesareans and further abroad, too. Rob Batiste reflects on the people and events which made 2005 a very special one MAKE the most of the good times, because they don't come much better than this.

2005 will go down in our sporting history as a vintage one, perhaps the best.

Virtually everything Guernsey did turned to gold.

For the second time in two years our Island Games team blitzed the opposition to top the medals table in Shetland.

Guernsey won the Centenary Muratti, landed a fourth successive inter-insular cricket win and, lo and behold, our rugby men ended a 10-year Siam drought.

Add to that any number of other inter-insular successes and in sporting terms, at least, the Jerseymen's noses have never been so deeper in the dust.

On the national scene, two sets of Guernsey bowlers lifted national titles and, to cap it all, Andy Priaulx clinched a world touring cars title to add to his European version.

Priaulx will, no doubt, win sports award after award in the coming weeks, just as he did a year ago, but today is the time to look elsewhere and recognise the efforts of those who do not make the back pages every week but perform heroically nevertheless.

It's also time to look at those who might make the big breakthrough in 2006.

Fiasco of the year: Although the Commonwealth Games selection procedure came in with a late run it has to be the ongoing row between bowls chief Garry Collins and a group of disgruntled players who threatened to have him removed from office only to discover that the chief executive knew the rules better than they did and cockily informed them they could not.

Collins won my 'big man award' 12 months ago but his lofty elevation into the higher reaches of sports administration may well turn out to be a disappointingly brief one - and a waste - if he is not careful.

His high-and-mighty attitude to those below him should be a warning to every administrator of how not to perform, including my official of the year, cricket's Dave Piesing.

The Cricket Guernsey chairman has worked tirelessly to get us on to the International Cricket Council stage where the benefits in terms of inspiration to players young and old and finance, should see the game continue to develop for years to come.

Our young cricketers face a hugely exciting future and they owe so much to Piesing who short and long-term needs to ensure his vision is embraced by others, on and off the field.

Cricket also boasts my coach-of-the-year in the form of Jason Shambrook.

His work as the driving force in the PricewaterhouseCoopers School of Excellence goes beyond the norm.

My sportsman of the year is cyclist Rob Smart who proved to be the best of sports at the Island Games' mountain bike criterium in Shetland.

Smart finished fourth while young Jimmy Carling grabbed silver, but the record books don't tell of how the former, recognising his colleague was struggling badly in the early stages, put his own race strategy at risk and almost certainly cost himself a medal, by offering advice to a rider who had gone out too fast and was in danger of blowing up altogether.

But, later, someone smiled on Smart, one of the good guys of Guernsey sport.

His second-place finish in the Southern Area MTB series won him a place at the Commonwealth Games.

My biggest trier award goes to a footballer who, in general terms, are put to shame by individual sportsmen and women at amateur level when it comes to preparation, ambition and dedication.

But nobody can ever accuse of Ryan-Zico Black of not trying.

He always wanted to be a professional footballer and while the stage - Conference North - may be several rungs below what he envisaged, the former Vale Rec junior continues to make a living from the game.

He gets dropped, He moves on. But he always bounces back.

Team of the year: Three spring to mind in multiple-trophy winning Cobo CC, the island cricket team and the Siam Cup heroes.

Cobo won three of the four major trophies available to them, the only one eluding them being the weekend championship.

In evening cricket they went through unbeaten and to cap it all Stuart Le Prevost's men landed the CI title.

Andy Biggins' island side won a fourth successive inter-insular game against Jersey in a KGV run-feast but, for sheer excitement, nothing approached Guernsey's remarkable Siam Cup win at St Peter.

So what, if it owed so much to a couple of South Africans.

At 24-9 down with 20min. to go an 11th straight defeat at the hands of the reds looked certain.

But a thrilling final quarter saw the game turn on its head and for the long-term health of the fixture, it needed to.