Island Games: Get to know ... the Isle of Wight
PERHAPS it’s the abundance of dinosaur fossils and footprints to be found on the island, or maybe the ancient deposits of former seabed that reach into the sky from off the west coast but Isle of Wight residents appear to have gained a placidity borne of a sense of temporal perspective.
‘We’re pretty chilled and laid-back,’ Isle of Wight Island Games Association chairman Kevin Winchcombe agreed.
‘We can be competitive if we’re playing sport but basically we’re pretty relaxed, as a rule.’
With the large cities of Southampton and Portsmouth just the other side of the Solent, the island is a relative haven of peace, with a population a little more than twice that of Guernsey in an area six times the size.
However, with tourism as the main driver of the economy, ‘things do get hectic in the summer', Kevin admits.
One of the attractions that brings large numbers to the island is the annual Isle of Wight Festival, which is a little more professionally organised than was the chaotic third iteration in 1970, ranked by the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest ever attendance at a music festival anywhere in the world, with about 650,000 people gathering to watch the Who, the Doors and Jimi Hendrix, among others.
This year’s three-day festival was headlined by Pulp, George Ezra, the Chemical Brothers and Robbie Williams.
Agriculture is the second contributor after tourism, with one particular product being highlighted by Kevin.
‘We’ve got a really big garlic farm over here and an annual Garlic Festival, which is quite a big deal.’
Several varieties of the bulbous flowering plant are grown on the island and a particular delicacy is black garlic, which is created by cooking garlic bulbs for a long time at a low temperature.
Eventually, the cloves blacken and become syrupy and sweet, with hints of tamarind and balsamic, so the marketing assures us.
‘It’s not just savoury food either,’ Kevin said.
‘They make ice cream with it as well.’
There is a fine tradition of boat building on the island and a knowledge of sailing that has well and truly permeated the sports scene.
The biggest sporting events on the calendar all make use of the sailcloth manufactured on the island.
Cowes Week is one of the biggest sailing regattas in the world, with up to 1,000 boats taking part in as many as 40 races a day.
For those who cannot wait until August, there is the Round the Island Race, which this year took place on Saturday 1 July and saw 6,000 competitors race a 50-nautical-mile course – you guessed it – around the island.
A handicap system means that amateurs and professionals alike can compete for the Gold Roman Bowl.
Sporting pursuits are certainly not all water-based, however, with all but one sport – bowls – being contested at these games by a ‘TeamIOW’ consisting of 172 competitors.
It could be considered ironic that the island is not sending a bowls player, because the island is the birthplace of one of Guernsey’s most celebrated recent successes – our adopted Commonwealth Games silver-medal winning Lucy Beere.
And if that is not enough to cause us to tip our hats in gratitude to the ‘caulkheads’ – as born and bred Isle of Wight people are wont to call themselves – then their island is also the cradle of the Bailiwick legend that is Joey the Aeroplane.
His manufacturer – and that of all the Trislanders – was Britten-Norman, based at Bembridge Airfield on the east coast.
About the Isle of Wight
Area: 380 sq. km (147 sq. miles)
Population: 140,459
Time zone: Same as Guernsey
Distance from Guernsey: 154km (96m)
Total IG medals won: 583 (188 G, 183 S, 212 B)
Medals won in 2003: 39 (10 G, 10 S, 19 B)
Competitors coming to Guernsey: 172
Route: Ferry to Hampshire, drive to Poole, ferry to Guernsey
Sports in which competing: Archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, cycling, golf, football, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, triathlon
Biggest sports star: Kelly Sotherton (heptathlon, 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medal winner)
National delicacy: Black garlic
Parliamentary representation: One MP in the 650-seat House of Commons, 39 councillors in the Isle of Wight Council