Sark's poles apart
SARK saw in the new year in traditional fashion - with a zany competition on the Millennium Field.For the last 25 New Year's Days, Dave Cocksedge and PJ Carre have organised what can only be described as a typical 'Sark? We're different' event without ever repeating even the most successful.
SARK saw in the new year in traditional fashion - with a zany competition on the Millennium Field.For the last 25 New Year's Days, Dave Cocksedge and PJ Carre have organised what can only be described as a typical 'Sark? We're different' event without ever repeating even the most successful.
Of the ones I've witnessed during the last 10 years, those that are among the more memorable include scaling the north face of the Bel Air, table football and the Sark Curling Championship.
The north face competition involved 'climbing' the top stretch of Harbour Hill with mountaineering ropes and pitons - easy enough to hammer the little pitons in over here, but not recommended for roads other than Sark's.
Then there was the transformation of the Bel Air's boules area into a table football pitch using scaffold poles with humans attached to them and complete with a perimeter of advertising hoardings.
The curling championship was another which provided a barrel of laughs and it, too, was sited over the boules area. The 'stones' - I regret that I don't know the correct description - were kettles filled with anything heavy and the rink along which they were played was timber coated with polythene sheeting and then soaked with lashings of washing up liquid.
This year's featured what was described as 'Nordic skiing - Sark-style' and it attracted a crowd that numbered something in the region of half Sark's resident population, although it was difficult to calculate how many were watching through the windows from the warmth of the Island Hall's bar.
The event seemed to be taken from the winter sports biathlon, which involves cross-country skiing interspersed with a bit of rifle shooting - just the thing for steady hands after a heavy New Year's Eve, I thought, as PJ Carre explained it all to me.
Thankfully, there wasn't a gun in sight as this aspect of the sport was replaced by something that involved throwing potatoes through holes scarcely bigger in some instances than the spuds themselves.
Oh, and to make it quicker and easier, the teams of two had to complete the course together - on just the one pair of skis.
And just to prove that Sark really is different, this pairs event managed to attract a team of three - a sort of variation of three men in a boat, only this was three men on a bike, complete with skis attached to both sets of pedals (it was a tandem) and a pillion passenger who for the most part looked to be hanging on for dear life.
Because they'd arrived team handed, so to speak, the trio had to complete an extra lap, much to the crowd's delight, and they provided a good deal of the entertainment.
Thankfully, these New Year's Day events aren't about winners, but if there were any then from the comments I heard it was probably those who watched, as well as those who did the entertaining.
Charles Maitland, chairman of La Seigneurie Gardens Trust, has sent me a copy of his report for the year, which discloses that the old 'chapel' at the entrance to the walled garden is to be cleaned and restored and then turned into an exhibition area.
The report also reveals that the gardens have made a modest profit for the year and that money from the sale of the lease of the old grain barn - it is being turned into a dwelling - will be used to help with the restoration of other old buildings, such as the stables to the rear of Hathaways Restaurant.
There are also plans for a sensory garden and, later this year, the replanting of the Millennium rose garden.
The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net
