The Island Games (XIV) - Ryde, Isle of Wight
The Island Games were held 25th June to 1st July 2011.
The badminton tournament within this multi-sport biennial event was this year umpired by representatives of the BUAofE drawn mainly from the South Region. The event, held on the Isle of Wight this year, has grown from the first event in 1985 held in the Isle of Man with 7 islands and just a few different sports, into a far larger and more serious world-wide games involving 25 islands and 14 different sports.
The 2011 event was described by the organisers as a unique opportunity for LOCOG, the 2012 Olympic Games Organising Committee, to see this it as a mini-dry-run for the London Olympics and indeed the 14th Island Games was formally opened by Lord Sebastian Coe, and included a royal visit from Prince Edward during the week.
In a similar way to the Olympic Games which is opened by lighting the flame, the Island Games is opened by "The Water Ceremony" where each Island brings a file of water from their own island and tips it into a large flask mixing their Islands virtues together.
The Badminton Tournament ...
The badminton competition was held over 6 days in the sports centre at Ryde High School and comprised a team event for the first 2 days, followed by an individual event. A team of 10 umpires covered the four courts and umpired and service judged all matches; line judges joined them for semi-finals and finals.
The team event was 2-all going into the final mixed doubles match. It went on court after 11.30pm and was won by Guernsey one minute after midnight! And with the medal ceremony to follow, a very late night at the end of a long day left the umpires very tired. However, they were all ready bright and early at 9.30am the next morning for the start of the individual events.
At the end of the week the umpires were each presented with a souvenir gold medal to remind them of a memorable occasion. It was the first time that the badminton had been fully officiated, and the whole of the competition was said to have been enhanced.
Letter from the deputy referee:
“Having just returned from the Isle of Wight island Games, on behalf of the referee team (Sue Naftel and myself), I would like to say what a real pleasure and privilege it was to work with colleagues from the BUAofE in order to deliver a successful competition.
A number of grades were involved from National, Senior County, County and Umpire. All worked extremely hard throughout the week, both individually and as a team, in order to ensure that the event went as smoothly as planned. It was a very busy week for all concerned, both competitors and officials; for example the team event on Monday 27th, eventually finished on Tuesday!
Thank you all.
Lew Kelly
Assistant Referee for the Island Games badminton competition”
The umpires for The Games were: David Evans, Joanne Small, Ranbir Heyre, James Leach, Ron Wood, John Frisby, Mark Griffin, Alistair Sutherland, David Li and Robin Hart(MoU).
