Basketballers won’t return ‘home’ straight away
HOOP dreams can return to Beau Sejour following the announcement that the Community Vaccination Centre will soon be moving out of the Sir John Loveridge Hall.
The hall will re-open for sport from early April, and vaccinations will instead be administered in the centre’s Cambridge and Delancey rooms.
Pete Beausire, a committee member for the Guernsey Basketball Association, said it was great news, but the sport would see this season out at St Sampson’s High School.
‘I personally wasn’t a big fan of them using the sports hall as the vaccine centre because I didn’t feel like they needed such a big venue when the David Ferguson Hall was sufficient, and I was very vocal about that early doors.
‘But it’s run its course and it’s going to be a sports hall again, which is fantastic.
‘From a basketball perspective we are not going to finish our season at Beau Sejour this year because we’ve already committed to St Sampson’s High and we don’t want to change our fixtures because it would mean even more disruption.
‘So we’ll continue to have our fixtures at St Sampson’s definitely for the remainder of this season, and we’ll go back to Beau Sejour in October for our new season.’
The change of venue for the CVC came on the day that the island reached 80% of its target for booster doses.
Yesterday the number of people boosted stood at 40,885 which means the community has significant protection from the
virus.
Mr Beausire said the hall had been missed by the sporting community.
‘It’s our home, it’s the home of Guernsey Basketball, we’ve played there since the centre opened.
‘The benefit of Beau Sejour for us is that it’s a central location, all facilities are on-site, there’s enough room on the balcony for our spectators, which we haven’t really been able to have at St Sampson’s High because they had to be sitting courtside.
‘And it makes a massive difference not having friends and family there to watch.
‘Our main thing is we haven’t had anywhere to hold an inter-insular for two years, they’ve been able to have the Siam because they were able to use Footes Lane, but if we want spectators, which is the whole point of having a game against your rival Channel Island, we’ve had no choice but to put it off, but we’re hoping to get a side together sooner rather than later for that.’
A flooring contractor will carry out remedial work on the Sir John Loveridge Hall before it is returned for the use of sports.
