Royal members in dark over their pro

Judging by social media reaction, the decision has not been welcomed by members at both the Royal or L’Ancresse, who use the pro shop jointly and have been left in the dark as to reasons why.

Douglas, who has declined to comment, will stay on until 30 September.

Speaking on behalf of the Royal Guernsey board of directors, Steve Turvey gave very little away other than confirming the pro was leaving at the end of September.

Will the club still have a pro shop come the autumn?

Turvey added: ‘What I’m hoping to do in the next week or so on behalf of the board of directors is to put out some information on the club in general with an update on the pro shop.’

Interesting times – many might say worrying – for golf and particular at the island’s oldest club which has seen waiting lists disappear.

n HERE’S a question for all of you who play or follow island sport.

What is the single biggest issue facing sport in Guernsey today?

I expect high on the responses would be inter-island transport (see below), finance, governance or facilities, but as Jon Ravenscroft embarks on his tenure as Guernsey Sports Commission chairman I’d hazard a guess that as well as all those issues, the two biggest concerns facing him and his band of commissioners would be: (a) convincing government that sport MATTERS and therefore requires some spend, and (b) working to remedy a slowly declining voluntary force.

Of those two, finding finance may be the easier to solve, although far from straightforward.

But to solve or alleviate the threat of (b) is, I am certain, going to be a whole lot harder than even (a) and it may require a substantial amount of money which the commission is finding ever harder to come by to oversee sport.

So, in a way, (a) and (b) are connected, if you see what I mean.

The volunteer issue worries me more than anything and modern lives and attitudes being what they are, I don’t see it ever improving.

Football is one area suffering more than perhaps any other and one or two clubs appear to be teetering on the edge of oblivion with, in each case, more than a century of hugely valuable, and often overlooked, community work coming to a sad end.

It need not be that way, but somehow we need to make it easier for sports clubs and associations to exist. Not more difficult.

n ABOUT as useless to inter-island sport as a chocolate tea pot, but, of course, on a par with how government and travel companies consider sport these days.

That is the only conclusion to be gleaned from the travel schedules released by Manche-Iles Express and unsurprisingly slammed by Stag founder Dave Piesing.

To say a golden opportunity has been missed, is a gross understatement and, as he says, nothing will have changed.

‘It will be virtually impossible to use the ferry service, and the net result will either be to incur the much higher cost of flying, or alternatively just not arranging the inter-island fixtures and they simply won’t happen, nor will there be an upsurge in residents of both islands making weekend leisure trips,’ he said.

‘In other words, nothing will have changed from the status quo, and yet it is the widespread frustration with the status quo which triggered the whole tender process.’