Sessions gee up Guernsey and Jersey

A SOUTH AFRICAN hockey legend has a foot in each camp ahead of today's inter-insulars. Former Springbok captain Craig Jackson has been brought to the Channel Islands by Investec to share his wealth of experience and knowledge with local players.

On Wednesday evening he coached some of the island's top juniors before working with the senior squad as they prepare to face the old enemy.

He travelled to Jersey on Thursday to help their hockey players as well. Jackson had been informed of the intense rivalry between the neighbours but he saw the funny side of his involvement.

'There potentially is a conflict,' he said before his training session with the Guernsey men's team.

'I won't be doing too much with them. If they've got a big match at the weekend we don't want to tire them.

'They must guide me. You can't make a big impact in one session.'

The 31-year-old Jackson certainly made a big impact during his days as an international defender. The Johannesburg native appeared 206 times for his country and had the honour of captaining them at 2004's Olympic Games in Athens.

He lists this as his sporting highlight and he also represented South Africa at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, two Commonwealth Games and two World Cups in Sydney and Kuala Lumpur. In 1997 he was voted the South African player of the year.

He has since retired from international hockey to concentrate on his role as player-coach of provincial side Southern Gauteng.

It's a position he has held for the last two years.

He is also involved in junior coaching and was looking forward to helping Guernsey's young hockey stars.

'It's all about enjoyment at that age,' he said.

'There are two basic things: firstly they need to enjoy themselves and secondly they need some competition, getting them scoring goals.'

During the training, Jackson had the task of picking four juniors who impressed him the most, to go over to the Jersey today to watch the inter-insulars courtesy of Investec.

The four selected were Lawrence Pinnell, Tiffany Gervaise-Brazier, Tom Still and Oliver Lepp.

Guernsey Hockey Association president Jason Robilliard was delighted that Jackson had come to Guernsey.

'Its very good as we are trying to raise the profile of hockey,' said Robilliard.

'Bringing over someone of that experience and quality is brilliant for the youngsters as they get to meet someone of his standard and it gives them something to strive for.'