LISTEN: ‘Lost’ Jeremie Cup turns up in the West Midlands

Nearly 500 days after it vanished in transit in the Channel Islands, it has turned up at a depot of the waste management company Biffa in Tipton, near Wolverhampton.

An employee apparently discovered the 120-year-old trophy among a consignment of undelivered parcels that had been earmarked for disposal and, after reading the engravings on the base and conducting a brief investigation on the internet, they contacted St Martin’s.

‘We got a message on our social media from a gentleman in Wolverhampton saying he had a trophy that had our name on it,’ said Saints director Ben Hunter, speaking on the Guernsey Press Sport Podcast.

‘Duncan [Wilkinson], who runs our social media, was corresponding with him, but we were not quite sure what they meant.

‘Then Duncan asked for a photo and the next thing there was a photo of the “lost” Jeremie Cup with all the history on it and the gentleman we were speaking to was basically trying to find who owned it.

‘We were one of the names on there so he contacted us and so, very randomly, we’ve found the Jeremie Cup.

‘It was basically in a kind of scrapyard and he realised there must be something behind it, reached out to us as one of the names as obviously a previous winner and next thing it’s on its way to my house – hopefully.’

A Biffa spokesman said: ‘We’re unsure how this historic trophy ended up at one of our depots in the West Midlands, but it’s wonderful to see it finally being returned to its rightful home.’

Until this discovery, the last-known whereabouts of the cup had been in Jersey on 27 May 2021 when it was put in the post by 2019 winners St Paul’s destined for the Guernsey Football Association, with that season’s final being played nine days later.

Of course, it never arrived, and 2021 winners St Martin’s lifted the Stranger Cup, which was used as a substitute.

Current holders St Peter, who start their defence against Bels this afternoon at the Track, were awarded a new trophy when they won the competition at the end of last season.

The Guernsey Football Association declined to comment until the trophy has been returned.

• The cup was presented to the Guernsey Football Association by Albert Jeremie in 1902. It is a 15in. twin-handled hallmarked silver trophy with ornate decoration topped by a 3in. hallmarked lid which is surmounted with a 3in. footballer wearing a cap, all on top of a tripled-tiered wooden base.