Channel Islanders will ultimately decide the winner when the sell-out televised event goes to Beau Séjour’s Sarnia Hall on Thursday 29 January.
The six nominees, three each from Jersey and Guernsey, include two other CI sporting heroes who narrowly missed out to Garland in the inaugural event held at Springfield in Jersey last February.Jersey’s World two-litre powerboat champion Roy Smith is nominated again, as is European Touring Car Championship challenger Andy Priaulx of Guernsey.Also challenging for the award are Jersey’s triathlon star Melissa Messervy and the Island’s newly capped England international hockey player Becky Herbert.
Guernsey’s NatWest Island Games cycling heroine Ann Bowditch makes up final six.Herbert steps up to challenge for the main award 12 months after sharing the £1,000 bursary prize which goes to the Rising Star of Channel Islands sport.This year’s Rising Star short-listed five cover a variety of sports and see three of Jersey’s young sports stars competing against two of Guernsey’s national champions.The Sarnian challenge comes from England Schools sprint hurdles champion Kylie Robilliard and the national youth mountain biking title-holder Jimmy Carling.The strong Caesarean challenge features British junior international swimmer Simon Le Couilliard, world under-21 full-bore rifle champion Peter Stock and newly-crowned 2003 UK Formula Ford Scholarship champion James Walker.The Team of the Year shortlist pits two of Guernsey’s successful NatWest Island Games teams against the British title winning Jersey women’s fours bowls of Myrtle Le Marquand, Gene Vibert, Jean Holmes and Joan de Gruchy and the Jersey Rugby Club, runners-up in the Hampshire Cup and holders of the inter-island Siam Cup.The Guernsey challenge features the gold-medal winning women’s basketball team and the record-breaking men’s 4 x 100m sprint relay team of Simon Sebire, Dale Garland, Ryan de Haaff and Nathan Stevens.There is a pan- Channel Islands challenger for this award in the form of the CI over-50s cricket team, which enjoyed a long run in the English Counties Championship.The Coach of the Year shortlist sees a three-two split in favour of Jersey.Challenging for the trophy won in 2002 by the Channel Islands Athletics Club’s Andrew Winnie are Jersey’s Dai Burton (rugby), Linda Andrews (netball), Paul du Feu (swimming) and the Guernsey duo of Colin Fallaize (football) and Patrick Ogier (basketball), who led their respective teams to gold medals at the Island Games.The guest speaker is BBC sport presenter John Inverdale.Details of the voting procedure will be released on 19 January.
