Success was a long time coming but worth the wait

In the third part of an eight-week series Rob Batiste looks back at the finest players to pull on the Sylvans shirt

First of many: Sylvans celebrate winning their first Priaulx League championship on their home ground in 1994. Back row, from left – Lee Renouf, Dave Gilman, Mark Coutanche, John Nobes, Paul Nobes, Clive Bateman, Paul Ozanne, Paul Gallienne, Stuart Roberts, Martyn de Garis. Front – Tony Tostevin, Steve Duckworth, Joel Avery, Paul de Garis, Tony Vance, Jan Renouf. (0042679)

THE healthy rivalry between Guernsey's senior clubs sometimes gets the better of players and coaches.

But when little, parochial Sylvans finally won the Priaulx League title in 1994, nobody was too unhappy that the friendly westerners had broken their duck. Not bad for a club which had officially disbanded in 1938.

But the warmth towards the Colin Renouf inspired Sylvans probably eroded as the red-and-whites turned one title into two, two into three and ultimately nine to equal St Martin's record of nine straight Upton Park cup appearances.

And with Mick Bachelet administrating behind the scenes like nobody since Dave Dorey's golden years at Vale Rec, Sylvans had finally arrived among the big fish in Channel Islands football.

Like Vale Rec, choosing their all-time Best XI was made that easier by the fact that most of their top performers featured in that golden decade, but as Alec Le Noury, former GFA president and long-serving committee man out west, was keen to remind his fellow panellists, the westerners might not have won much before 1994 and produced relatively few Muratti stars, but they have had many decent players who had they been born many years later would have pushed hard for places in the club's greatest era.

Next week in Best XI Rovers