It's a pre-birthday honour for Pam

PAM COCKSEDGE is the Sark resident chosen to light the island's jubilee beacon on 4 June.

That ceremony, which is due to take place shortly after 10.20pm in the field near the carriage park at La Collenette – the location of the evening entertainment – will be the only formal act in a day of celebration marking the Queen's 60 years on the throne.

Mrs Cocksedge was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire a year ago – her insignia was presented at a public investiture last month – and a few days after she lights the beacon she will celebrate her 88th birthday – something she is unlikely to thank me for mentioning.

From just after 3pm that day The Avenue will be closed and at 4.30pm a street party for all Sark children and their families will be held in Sark's principal thoroughfare, with live music from harpist Autumn Curtis Summers, The Elastic Band and street entertainers throughout the afternoon.

The celebrations will move to the La Collenette field during the evening with live music in a marquee – along with a buffet – from Sark's very own The Big Sheep, Guernsey's Tantale and Ms Summers and The Elastic Band.

That all sounds to me like a lot of fun and it's to be hoped that the island's hard-working constables – Joanne Godwin and Adrian Guille – will have nothing more serious than lost property enquiries to deal with.

*

By the time this is published the long-awaited report into Sark's government by former Whitehall civil servant Belinda Crowe might well have been placed in the public domain and, as I understand it, distributed to each of the island's households.

Details of the report's contents have apparently been revealed in the Sark Newsletter – I say 'apparently' only because I have seen neither the official report nor the Newsletter version – in what someone described to me as the biggest leak since Noah finished The Ark.

One unfortunate aspect of the leaked version being published – and I make no criticism of the publication, because the likelihood is that I would have done the same had a copy found its way into my hands – is that the inevitable speculation as to the source of the leak has already started.

In this context Ms Crowe's name has been mentioned and, despite not having made contact with her since I sent her my own submission to consider, I would think it unlikely in the extreme that someone with her public sector experience would be the source.

Those making such inferences and direct accusations – mostly on comment websites – would do well to remember the old island saying that there is no such thing as a secret in Sark unless only two people know and one of them is dead.

As to the report itself, I await my copy with interest. In the meantime can I suggest that if recommendations include some expensive ideas, then another old saying is likely to come into play – the pigs are fuelled and ready to fly.

In closing, a word about those remarkable pupils from Sark School who yet again have exceeded all expectations in the annual primary school hockey tournament against nine teams from Guernsey.

The teams were divided into two leagues of five and Sark won their league in a penalty shoot-out against St Martin's, with Amelia Southern scoring from the final hit.

The final against Beechwood ended with no score and the organisers decided against putting the eight- and nine-year-olds in another shoot-out, so the trophy will be shared – six months each – for the year.

Coach Pat Cunneen – she accompanied the team with Andy Cook and head teacher Sarah Cottle – said: 'Winning this once (last year) was a total surprise but to do it again shows there is a very real depth of quality in Sark children and I am immensely proud of them.'

So is the whole island.

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