FOCUS: 1985... The origins of the Island Games

Thursday 06 July 2023

What is now a biennial event that attracts more than 2,000 participants from 14 sports was supposed to be a one-off event in 1985.

The ‘Inter-Island Games’ – as it was originally known – was founded by Geoffrey Corlett, a former PE teacher, who took up a government role in his native Isle of Man to organise a celebratory ‘Year of Sport’ featuring events to boost tourism.

These events included anything from the world-renowned Isle of Man TT, a Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships and the Isle of Man Special Olympics to a fun run around the capital, Douglas.

An inter-pub arm wrestling contest and a pool tournament were also held at the Falcon Cliff Hotel, which ended in a punch-up. The crowning showcase, however, was what would be the inaugural Island Games.

Quickly dubbed the 'Small Islands mini-Olympics', more than 630 competitors from 15 small islands took part in seven sports – athletics, badminton, cycling, shooting, swimming, volleyball and five-a-side football – over four days from 19 July.

The Manx team numbered 110 alone, to compete alongside the likes of Iceland, Faroe Islands, Isle of Wight, Malta and the Channel Islands: Jersey and Guernsey.

Pictured: The first Island Games, held in the Isle of Man in 1985, received limited recognition in Jersey, although the golden success of Jersey swimmer David Filipponi and Guernsey’s Cate Jackson made headlines in the JEP.

Jersey sent a contingent of just 29 – seven of whom made up the U16 five-a-side football team.

No one entered in the athletics, cycling or volleyball, but the Caesareans finished fourth in the medals table, having won eight gold medals (along with 12 silvers and two bronze). Half were won by just one man: swimmer David Filipponi.

He dominated in the pool, picking up golds in the men's (not-quite) 100m back-stroke, freestyle and butterfly (the pool was 331/3 metres long) and the 4 x 331/3m individual medley.

Alison Christie also claimed gold in the pool, winning the women's 100m back-stroke in a time of 1min 21.6sec.

Jersey struck gold twice in the badminton hall, in the men's doubles and mixed doubles.

Both finals were all-Jersey affairs.

Pictured: Jersey struck gold twice in the badminton hall, in the men's doubles and mixed doubles.

Steve Watson and Ian Coombs-Goodfellow combined to beat Ian Lawson and Andrew Gallichan 15-5, 15-3 in the former, and Watson picked up his second gold when he partnered Jean Lawson in the latter to again defeat Gallichan and his partner Sally Adams 15-5, 15-4.

Meanwhile, shooters John Renouf and Derek Bernard also picked up gold medals in the free air pistol team event with a combined score of 1,015.

In football, Jersey finished seventh in the seven-team round-robin league, despite including future Swindon Town professional Chris Hamon in their ranks. Their one win, a 3-0 thrashing of their Sarnian rivals was their saving grace.

It was no surprise that the hosts dominated the medals, winning nearly a third of them. The Games garnered little interest in Jersey, with the JEP giving little in column inches throughout, but the event was a great success and it soon became apparent there was an appetite to see it return.

Following a meeting between all the islands' team managers at the Palace Hotel in Douglas on 23 July, it was agreed to set up the Island Games Association and a new sporting movement was born.

Three days later, the Isle of Man Courier hailed the Games as a "joyous occasion which brought together 15 islands of varying sizes and abilities", adding: "It was clear that competitors enjoyed fresh competition with all the trappings of those other Games – the Olympics and the Commonwealth."

Pictured top: The teams line up for the first Island Games in the Isle of Man in 1985. (International Island Games Association)