Explosive situation unwarranted

GUERNSEY Police are in Sark as I write investigating an allegation that there was a series of explosions early on Sunday morning near the offices of Sark Estate Management, from where the Sark Newsletter is published.

According to the newsletter edition on Tuesday, which published details of the incident, a £10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible.

I am no more privy to the police investigations than any other member of the public and so have no information on the substance(s) which caused the explosions – but I can say that such an act is as far removed from what ordinarily happens here as to beggar belief.

There is also no doubt that the war of words between the newsletter and commentators on various websites has escalated markedly in recent months, principally since the Seigneur's wife, Diana Beaumont, was taken ill and the subsequent decision by Sark medical officer Dr Peter Counsell to resign in the wake of fierce criticism expressed in the periodical.

For the most part, the Sark Newsletter is an unpleasant publication and I speak as someone who, over the years, has been subjected to its vilification, although not nearly as much as other Sark residents who also dared criticise its content. It brooks no dissent, no opposing view and no opinions other than those of the people who write it.

That said, there is absolutely no justification at all for opposing its views with the use of explosive devices, no matter what their strength or potential for harm.

Those responsible have done Sark a gross disservice. It is peaceful means which win hearts and minds and nothing else.

*

Last weekend saw the first of the season's fishing competitions and I'm delighted to report that a 12-year-old girl showed the remaining competitors – mostly adults, so I'm told – just how to sling a baited hook, weight and line from a rock and have something at the end of it all that was actually worth weighing.

I caught up with Willow Guille just as she was getting on the toast rack on Monday afternoon to return to Blanchelande College after the Easter holidays.

To say that she was still elated is an understatement, although no doubt the £36 she won in prize money was a factor.

Willow scooped the prize for the heaviest bag – fish totalling 9lb in weight – and the heaviest fish, a 3lb 13oz wrasse.

However, when asked where she'd fished, her answer was a very non-committal 'somewhere in Little Sark'. They're a canny lot, these anglers.

*

Rob Adams' ashes were laid to rest in his beloved Sark on Saturday after one of the most moving services I have ever attended.

Not surprisingly St Peter's Church was packed, with standing room only, as had been his funeral service in England a week earlier, and those of us there heard what, for me at least, was possibly the most poignant, loving and often funny tributes to this much loved son of Sark.

It came from Giles Cross, a friend he met at university – 'hello, I'm Rob, I'm from Sark' – who recounted among many other things the promise he and Rob made to each other that whoever died first, the other would give the address.

No one in that church could doubt that Giles Cross – yes, there was a horse of the same name running in that day's Grand National and a lot of Sark money went on it – more than adequately kept his side of the bargain.

It was a lovely tribute to someone who, in every sense of the word, was a big man.

• The email address for publication is fallesark@sark.net.