Ogier’s ladies grateful to get quick chance to avenge Island Games loss
THE ongoing influence of the air-bridge has handed Patrick Ogier’s ladies a new and immediate aim following several big cancellations.
Despite the recently confirmed fate of the 2020 inter-insular and 2021 Island Games, both in heavy doubt anyway, Guernsey will host Isle of Man for a couple matches over the Halloween weekend.
The home island have 19 players available in their armoury, with the two Emmas – Hicks and Webb – taking co-captaincy duties.
How the teams will be split is another matter, but long-standing women’s coach Ogier said: ‘We want to see, from our point of view, where we are and give everyone a run-out, get them playing against different opposition.
‘The likelihood of having an inter-insular in the near future is remote, the way things are going with Jersey, but we need to do something to try and keep in touch, basketball-wise.
‘When the opportunity came about and they wanted to come across, we jumped at the chance of a game.’
The Guernsey ladies have carried an exemplary inter-insular record since the millennium, having last lost to Jersey back in 1999.
The Isle of Man match-up is also one where Guernsey has traditionally done rather well.
Their record faltered at Gibraltar 2019, though, as a less experienced Sarnian side lost 33-55 in their group-stage encounter.
With extra experience under the players’ belts, Ogier is more hopeful of getting a result or two from this rematch.
‘We’ve always done well against the Isle of Man, up until the Gibraltar [2019] Island Games, where they beat us for the first time in a competition.
‘There was a different squad to the one we’d normally take – a lot of younger players, a lot of first-time players.
‘We didn’t do great from a results point of view but development-wise, they’ve had a lot... hopefully we can put that into practice when we play them again.’
SQUAD: Emma Webb, Emma Hicks, Verona Tomlin, Gemma Batiste, Erin Ogier, Sammie Cox, Katie Cochrane, Emma Sykes, Bonita Le Noury, Hayley McInnes, Donna Brehaut, Katie Le Gallez, Christina Hartwich, Emilie Batiste, Kerri Brown, Liz Mills, Megan Seward, Tia Barnett, Tracy Martel.
