Guernsey Press

Rugby club put in a bind by inter-island travel links

GUERNSEY rugby is facing a £50,000 bill to get senior and junior inter-insulars played in Jersey this spring.

Published
The travel bill for the Junior Siams, played by ages from under-7s to under-18s in Jersey on Saturday 26 April, is some £40,000. (Picture by Sophie Rabey, 34045210)

The local club has chartered aircraft and ferries to get across to Jersey for Siam Cup fixtures in April and May because of the lack of options.

The bill for the Junior Siams, for ages between under-7s to under-18s, all being played on one day on Saturday 26 April, is some £40,000 alone. The cost is higher because the club needs to arrange a day trip, particularly for younger players.

The club has already chartered a ferry for the senior Siam matches, but it will require an overnight stop for players and supporters.

‘It’s caused a huge amount of extra work and uncertainty,’ said Guernsey Raiders vice-chairman Chris Gnapp.

The arrangements being made demonstrate how inter-island spectator sports in particular are struggling to survive without a regular ferry service.

Mr Gnapp said that not having winter weekend sailings could seriously impact on rugby, football and hockey inter-island matches in the future.

‘I think there is a fair chance it will create some real challenges for sport if they don’t have some day returns at weekends.’

Arrangements for May’s Muratti final in Guernsey have not been finalised, as Jersey still has to play a semi-final in Alderney on 22 March before it can look at getting across for the final.

Bethan Haines, chairwoman of the Guernsey Rugby Academy, said it was looking to take 260 young players, plus volunteers and parent supporters, across for the Junior Siam matches.

‘We have parents and family who want to travel as well, plus the volunteers, coaches and managers,’ she said.

In previous years the club would have been able to encourage suitable ferry timings from Condor. But now there is just a scheduled Wednesday service between the islands being offered by Brittany Ferries, while Jersey operator DFDS has not yet announced an inter-island schedule.

Manche-Iles Express is due to start sailings around that date but offers hardly any weekend day-trip sailings between the islands, while Islands Unlimited wants to run a daily service, but will not be starting sailings until June.

The Rugby Academy has chartered two Blue Islands aircraft, is using some seats on scheduled flights, and has also chartered the Manche-Iles ferry Granville, which can carry 245 passengers.

‘If we don’t get any sponsorship we are looking at about £90 per player and volunteer to travel and £110 for parents and other supporters,’ said Ms Haines.

‘We want to keep the costs down for the players and volunteers. Normally we’ve had a sponsorship deal which we share between ourselves and Jersey but we’ve been struggling to get sponsors this season.'

She said the Academy was grateful to the travel providers which had helped.

‘I think Blue Islands have done a reasonable deal and Manche-Iles have done a fantastic deal,’ she said.

Guernsey Raiders will take 90 players and up to 150 spectators to Jersey on Saturday 3 May for the Siam Cup fixtures, also on board Granville, which cost about £10,000 to hire.

The boat will leave Guernsey at 10.20am on the Saturday and return at 5.05pm the following day. An 11.40 arrival has meant that kick-off for the matches has been pushed back, with the first game due to start at 12.30pm.

Travelling supporters and players will have to book and pay for an overnight stay.

‘For the first time in years there’s no day return option,’ said Mr Gnapp. ‘That’s put a lot of people off because they’d have to pay for a hotel.’

Nonetheless the tickets, priced £60 each, were selling well, he said.

‘I think we’re getting fairly close to capacity.’

Mr Gnapp said that improvements were required in inter-island connectivity.

‘If Islands Unlimited was starting in May we would have been all over it,’ he said.

‘I genuinely hope that when they do get going they’re successful.’