The 2011 Island Games: Isle of Wight v Guernsey

The ultimate flag quiz at Cowes.

A short stuffy bus journey from Cowes Sports, in which us concertinaed passengers had as much wriggle room as a gathering of sand eels in a puffin's beak, took me to the final of the men's football tournament at Newport (IW)'s St George's Park ground with fifteen minutes to spare.

Nearly at the turnstiles now...

Now, an arrival time of fifteen minutes before kick-off at most small grounds would normally give me time to do the essentials of paying at the turnstile, buying a programme and a raffle ticket after a short chat with the seller about the weather, a quick visit to the clubhouse bar or tea hut for refreshments, and maybe a swift hunt around the club shop for an addition to the enamel badge collection, and all in plenty of time for the pre-match handshakes...

It's that giant football again! Last seen at Cowes yesterday!

...but not for this match! The queue to gain entrance stretched back past the stand, across the car park and out onto the pavement along St George's Way. The match had to be delayed for fifteen minutes to allow everyone to come in via the two turnstiles.

The view from the grass bank at Newport.

They say that 1,000 people can fit around the railings of an average-sized football pitch (hence the minimum capacity at even a small ground such as Andover New Street's would be in four figures). At Newport for this match, people were generally standing at least two deep around the pitch. And it goes without saying that the 350 seats in the stand were all occupied by the early arrivals. The club had even allowed spectators to stand on the grass banking over the far side from the entrance. Bearing all this in mind, the official attendance of 1,870 seemed a little low.

A flat cap's-eye view of the proceedings.

Apparently, Games competitors were allowed in for free, and not counted in the official figures (and there were many tracksuited competitors dotted around the place). Thus, St George's Park's record attendance of 2,150 may well have been unofficially broken for this Friday afternoon fixture.

The covered terrace opposite the main stand.

This mighty throng were treated to a match worthy of the final billing. Both sides had won all four of their previous tussles during the week, with the Isle of Wight preventing an all-Channel Islands denouement when beating Jersey the day before. Jersey's consolation was a bronze medal in the 3rd/4th play-off match. They will be seeded in the next tournament in Bermuda in 2013, along with the two finalists.

The official dance moves of the Island Games, as performed by Guernsey (in green) and the Isle of Wight.

Guernsey - who will be playing in the Combined Counties League on the mainland this season, against the likes of Hartley Wintney and Eversley - took the lead within minutes of the start after a flowing move ended with a screaming close-range net-bulger at the far end of the pitch. But despite being the better team for much of the first half, they couldn't hold on, and the hosts equalised and then took the lead with two quick goals with ten minutes to play.

The last photo before the camera battery gave out!

Guernsey managed to pull the score back to 2-2 before the end. However, extra-time did for them. The Isle of Wight's more comfortable nights in their own soft and fluffy beds helped them to stay more alert as Guernsey's defence nodded off once in each extra half. The higher stamina levels of Wight's Southern League and Wessex League players eventually turned Guernsey's dream into a nightmare, as it ended 4-2.

So, here ends my Island Games match reports. There would have been at least one photo of the hosts' end-of-match celebrations, however, my camera battery decided it was a good time to become fully discharged. So, you'll just have to imagine their joy for yourselves...

The 2011 Island Games: Isle of Man v Åland

The back of Cowes Sports' stand.

It's July 1st on the Isle of Wight - the last day of the Island Games. There are finals going on in various sports all over the island. Some competitors will be going home with nice new shiny medals to show their friends and family, whilst others will simply be leaving with tired limbs and a colourful plastic bucket full of memories.

The flag of Åland flutters in the breeze outside the ground.

There are six medals up for grabs in the two football competitions - bronzes in the third-place play-offs; golds and silvers in the finals. Greenland's women's team had already won their island's first-ever football medal by the time the women's final kicked off at midday - they would be flying back to Nuuk as national heroes after their 1-0 victory over the goal-shy Western Isles (six goalless games in seven attempts by their two teams).

And here's the Isle of Man flag inside the ground.

The two finalists were the two highest scorers in the women's competition: the Isle of Man (16 goals in three matches) and Åland (18 in four). The only other unbeaten team were the unlucky Isle of Wight, and they came along to heckle the Isle of Man.

A secret football pitch behind the covered standing area.

Other athletes in the stadium included the Isle of Man men's football team, who sat in the stand and cheered their women on in their Mark Cavendish-semi-Scouse-like accents. Also in attendance were a phalanx of Scandinavians, both from Åland and the Norwegian island of Hitra. They seemed to take the Isle of Man's fans' chanting as a challenge - anything they could do, the Scandinavian Barmy Army could do louder - much much louder - with their raucous Swedish/Norwegian tonsils and Natwest-sponsored whacking balloons (possibly coming to a stadium near you this coming season...you have been warned!). The official crowd was 185, but they were ten times louder than the ten-times bigger crowd at the men's final later on in the afternoon - think Fratton Park v the Highbury Library, and you get the picture.

Åland on the ball.

Not only was this the most vocal crowd of the week, but they were also treated to the best football that I saw. Åland's tiki-taki passing game on the bowling lawn of a pitch at Cowes was splendid to watch. The Isle of Man were good - they even took the lead after five minutes - but they were eventually outclassed by the brilliant Ålanders.

A tremendous save by the Åland keeper.

The short passing game of the Scandinavians bamboozled the Isle of Man, and they soon began to look tired (as well they might after the week's heavy schedule - most teams were playing four or five matches in six days - some with extra time). Åland were able to score almost at will, despite their opponent's best efforts.

"Give us an Å! Give us an L..." By far the noisiest crowd of the entire tournament.

The final whistle blew with the score at 5-1 to Åland, and I got the impression that they had throttled back in the second-half, after going in 4-1 to the good at half-time. They hugged and received their medals, and no doubt had a whale of a time at the closing ceremony in Cowes later that evening, where they could take their hairbands out, have a glass of wine or two and talk about the 23 goals they had scored this week.

We did it! Åland have won the gold medal!

Meanwhile, I took a bus to Newport, along with the Hitra football team, ready for the men's final at 3pm...

The 2011 Island Games: Isle of Wight v Jersey

The match ball was over-inflated.

Now I know how Puff the Magic Dragon felt. Okay, admittedly I don't know what it feels like to be a large, fire-breathing, psychedelic, drug-quaffing mythical beast (I'm not a rock star, after all), but I do know what it feels like to be, er, puffed out after a long uphill walk. The women's semi-final at East Cowes had finished late, so I only had twenty minutes to trot the 3km to Cowes Sports' Westwood Park ground, and this included a fifteen minute wait for the chain ferry across the River Medina. Like a middle-aged, male Kate Bush, I was running up that hill as fast as my little legs would carry me so that I missed as little action as possible, but still arrived 30 minutes after kick-off.

ITV Channel Television had their cameraman covering the action.

The match in question was the men's semi-final of the 2011 Island Games football tournament (kindly sponsored by Hovertravel, the hovercraft company). The hosts, Isle of Wight, were taking on fellow group winners Jersey. Both sides had won all their matches thus far, with Jersey being involved in the most newsworthy game of the tournament four days previously, when Rhodes had had four players sent off, had attacked the fourth official, and then allegedly trashed Newport's dressing room after the final whistle. Rhodes had been sent packing, with a ban from the next two tournaments as their Isle of Wight souvenir (instead of the usual test-tube full of multi-coloured sand from Alum Bay). Their results had been expunged from the records, so I suspect the first match I had seen (Rhodes v Greenland) now officially never happened!

Jersey, all in blue, attacking the Isle of Wight's goal.

This semi-final could have done with a few incidents, as I can barely remember what happened, despite it being only three days ago. What I do recall is that the Isle of Wight scored the only goal of the game midway through the second-half, a matter of minutes after I'd swapped ends, believing that Jersey would be the most likely team to score, and that I might get a photo of their celebrations if I stood behind the goal that they were attacking. Wrong, as usual!

A Jersey player suffering in front of Cowes Sports' large stand (which seats more than Newport's, and is thus the biggest football stand on the island).

Talking of photos, a combination of arriving late, and being in a relatively large crowd of 813 (and thus not being able to move around the ground as freely as I had been doing at other games), meant that I couldn't take very many interesting pictures, so this photo diary is a little bare. It even includes the same idea twice, as you may have noticed. I took a few more when I went back to Cowes the following day for the women's final, which will be coming up next...

Beware of Stray Flying Footballs (again!).

The 2011 Island Games: Greenland v Åland

Radio Greenland up on the roof.

Now, this is where my very unjournalistic lack of note-taking during the matches I go to comes back to bite me, like a gooey gummy bear who's lost its dentures (hang on, wrong simile...should have mentioned crocodiles or piranhas or something...). Four games in two days, twenty goals and sundry other incidents. With one game, I can remember most of the salient points, but four...hmmm.

Lining up for the anthems. Greenland...

Luckily, nobody reads this text anyway, so I could just wibble on about the periodic table or monster truck racing, or anything really. I know people just come here to look at the pictures, so think of the next four Island Games football reports as a photo diary, okay!

...and Åland.

The first of these photo diaries is of the women's semi-final between Greenland and Åland, played at East Cowes Victoria Athletic's ground on Thursday 30th June 2011.

Singing beneath the flag.

Åland had won their qualifying group with big wins over Jersey and Hitra (5-0 and 6-0 respectively), and a 1-1 draw with the Isle of Wight. According to overheard conversations, they play together as a semi-professional outfit in the Swedish women's football league.

The team photo before kick-off.

Greenland had controversially qualified as best runners-up, with a 3-1 defeat against the Isle of Man and a rip-roaring 8-0 thumping of Gibraltar earlier in the week. This had left them with the best goal difference of the three second-placed teams, but with a worse points-per-game ratio than the Isle of Wight. The organisers must have decided that goal difference was the most important of the two factors, and through they went, with the hosts contesting the 5th/6th play-off with Saaremaa.

The match gets under way.

It was obvious from the first whistle that Åland were the better team. But whether it was nerves or misfortune, or a mixture of the two, they just couldn't break through the stubborn Greenland defence. Greenland had a couple of chances, much to their fans' delight, but the Åland keeper didn't really have a save to make. Surprisingly, it was still 0-0 at half-time.

Watching from the bench.

I don't know if they have half-time rollickings on Baltic islands, but in the second half, Åland played as though there had been some tea cup throwing going on in the dressing room. They were 3-0 up within five minutes of the restart, and it was game over. Greenland's passing game disintegrated and they started thinking about the third-place play-off and a possible bronze medal.

A Greenland flag on display behind the goal.

Both sets of fans (around 15-20 for each side in an overall crowd of 100 or so) kept cheering, but everyone knew the result was inevitable.

Åland score their second penalty of the afternoon.

The ref awarded three penalties for various misdemeanours in the box - two for Åland and one for Greenland - all of which were converted. Greenland's penalty was what they call a consolation goal, as they were already 6-0 down by then.

Åland move forward in front of the East Cowes Vics stand.

Final score: 6-1 to Åland. The match had kicked off twenty minutes late, due to the Greenlanders simply enjoying the pre-match warm-up too much, from what I could see. The officials had asked them to return to the dressing room several times, but they either didn't understand the instructions, or ignored them. This made me later than I would have been for the next match in West Cowes, but it didn't bother me too much. Slack time-keeping is too rare in modern life, and should be cherished when the opportunity arises (or so I told myself as I sat on the chain ferry pondering this, that and various other). Thus, onwards to a men's semi-final...

The final whistle blows and Åland have won!

The 2011 Island Games: Western Isles v Åland

A proud supporter waves the Åland flag at the Newport FC Island Games bus stop.

I returned to the Isle of Wight on Monday to watch the match between Åland and the Western Isles, which took place at the island's largest football venue, St George's Park, in Newport. The weather was hot and dreary, with the occasional dollop of rain. The game itself wasn't particularly exciting - Åland were just a little sharper up front, otherwise the teams were evenly matched.

The Åland team pose for a group photo. It must be uncomfortable squatting like that for too long.

It was more interesting watching the other people in the crowd for a lot of the time. The Western Isles fans were on one side of the main stand; the Åland flag-wavers were in a small block to their right. There were between ten and twenty supporting each side, with the rest of the crowd of 152 being neutral. Nowhere near as noisy as the previous match I went to between Greenland and Rhodes, both off and on the pitch - both teams playing with a certain North European reserve.

This dog was being fed chips outside the snack bar.

The highlights on the pitch were the two second-half Åland goals, the second of which was an absolute cracker - a 40 yard lob over the goalie's head into the top corner. Very Matthew Taylor-esque in its execution (or for the Saints fans amongst you, Matthew Le Tissier-esque - that good!). The Scotsmen huffed and puffed, but were unable to break through at all. I would say that they weren't going to score in a month of Sundays, but as they don't play on Sundays due to their religious beliefs, that will always be the case! 0-2 meant that they were the first team to be knocked out of the tournament.

The second-largest football stand on the Isle of Wight.

I spent some time wondering where Åland is (I hadn't checked before I set off). I knew that it's in the Baltic, but I didn't know to which nation they belong, or what language they speak (Finland and Swedish being the answers!). The other thing that bothered me as I ate my half-time banana was the name of the little 'o' that resides on the top of the capital A in Åland (I still don't know!). I know a circumflex is a little pointy hat for French vowels; an umlaut is the double-dot of choice for heavy metallers the world over; and I know which way the acute and grave accents point in French. But the little 'o'? It's so Scandinavian and mysterious. I like it.

Keeper's ball! Another Western Isles attack comes to nothing.

I also wondered about the beautiful sandy beaches on Barra and Benbecula on the Western Isles. I wondered if anybody ever goes there to sunbathe; I wondered if the beaches were covered in smelly seaweed; I wondered if the sand was full of sandhoppers. I'd like to visit the beaches of Barra and Benbecula one day and find out for myself.

A fair challenge sees the Western Isles gallop forward.

I might see Åland again later in the week, as I hope to go back and watch some more matches on Thursday and Friday. After today's results, it appears that they have finished dead level with Saaremaa at the top of their group, after the Estonian island also beat the Scotsmen 2-0. Whether they will draw lots, or have a penalty shootout, or have a fishing competition on the Medina to decide the group winner remains to be seen.

Your number is falling off, sir!

I don't know who I shall see yet, but there will be further match reports and photos later in the week.

The official Team Åland water bottle.

The 2011 Island Games: Greenland v Rhodes

The Island Games banner at Brading.

The fourteenth Island Games are being held on the Isle of Wight this week. This is a mini-Olympics for 25 islands which don't have nation status, with over four thousand athletes competing in a wide variety of sports over the course of the tournament.

I have taken two trips over to the island so far, watching two of the men's football matches. The first of these was on Sunday at Brading Town FC, where the biggest island in the world, Greenland, were taking on the Greek footballers of Rhodes in the mid-afternoon sunshine.

Plenty of support from other Greenlandic athletes.

The match was hard-fought, but lacked a little in goalmouth action. Rhodes won a penalty midway through the first half, but it was tame and easily saved by the Greenland keeper. It reminded me of Kevin-Prince Boateng's hesitant pen for Pompey in the FA Cup final last year, not least because the two sides were wearing roughly the same kits (although Rhodes were in Chelsea blue, so it wasn't quite the same).

Flags flying above Greenland's Party Car.

The crowd were very much on Greenland's side. They had a big following from their own athletes. Their women's football team weren't playing on Sunday, so I assume it was them that were doing most of the chanting. A small group of English fans were also cheering the men in white on, singing such renowned ditties as "the referee's from Iceland" when the man in black was fooled by a Rhodes player's swan dive.

We were also treated to a selection of Greenlandic pop blasting from a car stereo throughout the second half. In case you're wondering, it sounds just like every other manufactured pop the world over, except sung in their own language. A bit disappointing really.

The Rhodes coach captured in a quiet moment.

The Greeks did manage to take the lead before half-time. A lofted free-kick was missed by the Greenland defence, and the Rhodes number nine managed to bundle the ball home from a yard out. Greenland's keeper kicked the post in frustration. All that preparation, and his team could effectively be heading out of the tournament after 30-odd minutes, what with only one team qualifying from the group of four.

The Greenland fans weren't the only noisy people in the ground. The Rhodes coach must have yelled every word in the Greek dictionary throughout the 90 minutes, with every gesticulation in the Greek semaphore dictionary as an accompaniment. In contrast, his team's substitutes only used the word "bravo!" I guess that's Greek for "well played!"

Rhodes clear the ball upfield.

Nothing much happened in the second half. Rhodes were content to keep the ball and make Greenland chase blue shadows in the very un-Arctic temperatures. They did manage to score a second ten minutes from time. Then still nothing much happened...

Greenland kit.

...until the board was shown to indicate four minutes of injury time. Then it all went hatstand. Greenland scored a few minutes previously, the ball being hooked in from six yards. Rhodes got wound up - their play-acting (which was always there or thereabouts) was turned up a few notches to eleven. They argued and time-wasted, for which their keeper was booked. Then one of their players stroppily pushed over a Greenlander (and at the far end of the pitch as well) - a sending-off. A minute later and a panicky mix-up in the Rhodes defence caused the goalkeeper to handle outside of his area - a second yellow, and he was off too. It took several minutes of arguing and harrumphing, but eventually one of the outfield players was given a goalie's shirt and play could resume.

The resulting free-kick was lumped in, the stand-in keeper grabbed the ball with all the goalkeeping skills of a newborn baby giraffe, and the ref blew for full-time.

The hot weather suited the Greek team.

2-1 to Rhodes in front of 202 enthusiastic fans at a pretty ground for just three quid. Most enjoyable!

More match reports to follow shortly.