Jackson destined for the history bin

If the Guernsey Football League Management get their way at next week’s annual meeting with the senior clubs, the old reserves league will be confined to history.

Not before time too.

The competition originally presented by Mr S. W. Jackson in 1896 has long lost its function as a league for genuine reserves and up-and-coming youngsters.

The GFLM report that 12 of this season’s scheduled Jackson games were scratched and in many of those that did take place, one or both competing sides featured predominantly 1st team players.

In its stead, the GFLM have designs on increasing the number of players in the growingly popular Lancaster Railway divisions and are not ruling out expanding it to three divisions.

Either way, the clubs who genuinely have sufficient players to field three senior teams can be accommodated and, at the same time, the eradication of the Jackson will free up much-needed fixture slots as will the likely reduction to just four Under-18 sides next term.

Now that is a worry and a problem not so easily solved.

n WILL Woodford is to stay on as North coach after all.

After weeks of intimating he was to step down from the role, word from the Northfield this week is that next week’s Stranger Cup final won’t be his last game and he is prepared to give it another season.

With a dearth of able experienced coaches about, Woodford’s re-think is good news for the chocolate-and-blues and island football as a whole, as is confirmation that the de Garis brothers – Paul and Martyn – are digging in for a full campaign at Sylvans after riding to the rescue halfway through the one finally all but finished.

The de Garis’s are committed to changing fortunes at St Peter’s and they are confident of picking up some summer signings as they aim to move back up the league.

n IN A week that saw Vale Rec make domestic FA Cup history, comes a fresh link to the man who set the ball really rolling at the Corbet Field a full half-century ago.

Few of today’s island football followers will remember the brilliant strike play of Tony Williams, who arrived on island in 1965, helped make St Martin’s even stronger than they already were and, then, for the good of the domestic game and as some form of personal challenge, put Vale on the map by transferring there along with a long list of, in the main, UK born players.

It worked a treat and all these years later Tony, who remained a key figure in UK amateur football and post-playing launched and edited the Rothmans Football Year Book – the sport’s equivalent of Wisden – has published a wonderfully entertaining and superbly illustrated book entitled ‘Arguably A Love Story.’

Football in the Channel Islands and Guernsey, specifically, gets its own substantial chapter and for those who have heard snippets of the ‘legend’ that was Colin Renouf, hear this from Tony who has seen and played with many of the best in amateur and professional football.

‘Our skipper at the club was Colin Renouf, who I think could have been as good as the famous Welsh international giant John Charles.

‘He [Renouf] had the physical power to dominate at centre-half or centre-forward and his heading power was as good as anyone I have seen other than Nat Lofthouse, but I don’t think Nat could have played as well at centre-half.’

To be compared to not only the Bolton Wanderers great who was capped 33 times for the England team between 1950 and 1958, scoring 30 goals and giving himself one of the greatest goals-per-game ratios of any player to represent England at the highest level, but also ‘Il Gigante Buono’ – The Gentle Giant – who signed for Juventus and is widely regarded as Wales’ finest ever footballer – pre Gareth Bale – is an astonishing accolade from such an astute judge.

Williams’ comments will get a lot of old boys nodding in approval.