Island team's a credit

SARK'S Island Games team got off to a great start with a gold medal in the automatic ball trap team event.Nick Dewe and Stefan Roberts had a score of 176 and beat the Menorca (173) and Isle of Man (163) teams into second and third place respectively.

The island's archers had less success but I understand performed very creditably, with Monika Komia placing 15th and Jane Norwich 17th in their event and Peter Counsell and Kevin Adams coming in 25th and 29th respectively in theirs.

At the time of writing, that's all the information I have, but no doubt this small community's team will bring a huge amount of credit to Sark, as do all the island's sportsmen and women wherever they compete.

Right now the island is gearing itself up for this weekend's three-day Sark Folk Festival which, if it is half as successful as last year's inaugural event, will be yet another thing that will bring nothing but credit to the island.

For readers who know little or nothing about the festival, there is an excellent website - sarkfolkfestival.com - giving out a mass of information about the venues at various locations throughout the island, as well as about the artistes taking part.

I am told that such has been the demand that Sark Shipping will almost certainly be laying on extra sailings and Manche Iles will also be operating direct services from Jersey both tomorrow and on Sunday.

I doubt that there will be much in the way of spare accommodation available for those who want to make a weekend of it, so perhaps those intending to stay over should contact either the Tourism Department's Visitor Centre on 832345 or individual hotels, guest houses or campsites before making a final decision.

In the meantime, the weather forecast looks promising, with temperatures of about 21C, 10mph winds and no black clouds for tomorrow or Sunday.

Talking of events, I have been asked to remind visitors that the annual Sheep Race Meeting is being held later this month. Friday 22 July is party night, while the races themselves are on the Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

There will also be lots of other attractions on all three days and, as always, the meeting promises to be a family fun event with something for everyone to enjoy.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about carter Ross Henry selling his business after years of humping suitcases up and down the Maseline Harbour steps. Not long afterwards I received an email from Rick Le Page, who recalled making his annual visit to the annual church fete with his family.

He bought a lot of books - several boxes of them, in fact - and Anglican minister the Rev. Graham Leworthy arranged for Ross to collect them and take them to the harbour.

'On arrival there, I asked Ross how much I owed him and his response was that if I'd spent money at the fete, that was good enough for him,' said Rick.

As he added, it speaks volumes about the man and Sark generosity, 'which is why we keep coming back'.

I'm usually grateful when things are done for me, but I draw the line at those who apologise on my behalf. In his Sark Newsletter last week, Kevin Delaney sought to do that while disagreeing with my criticism of a letter which I felt was arrogant and prone to exaggeration.

While I generally agree with a 'customer is king' philosophy - if the steak's not properly cooked, by all means send it back - the letter I criticised went much, much further than that.

I view Mr Delaney's apology on my behalf in about the same way as he would view me apologising on his behalf to the family of the late Mark Lanyon for any distress he may have caused them with his repeated comments about helicopter medical evacuations.

* The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.