Pictures from Island Games on Isle of Wight

Karen Clapp sent me some pictures of the Falkland Islanders who took part in the Games in June this year - thanks Karen.

The team at their base camp.

The football team celebrates success in the small islands competition against Alderney

On the golf course - Troyd Bowles (I think!)

Trap Shooting - Saul Pitaluga

HMS Protector Commissioned

Someone kindly sent me details of the Commissioning Ceremony with the Order of Service that took place at Victory Jetty, Portsmouth Naval Base on 23 June 2011.

Battle Day planning starts

I usually start to plan the details of the December Battle Day this month but was surprised to get a call from the Metropolitan Police today enquiring about Battle Day 2012? It appears that as it is the year of the Olympic Games (four months before the ceremony) they are having to start planning already!

Battle Day ceremony at The Cenotaph 11 December 2010

It might mean that I can get most of the planning for two years done in one lot of letters but I doubt that. Interestingly Battle Day (8th December) falls on the Saturday in 2012 so we will be celebrating in London the same day as they celebrate in the Islands where they always mark the actual day - we have to go to the nearest Saturday.

Eileen Pickford update

Tony Creece, younger brother of Eileen Pickford (pictured below) who is still our undisputed oldest living Falkland Islander, has telephoned today. He points out that we got the birthday date wrong in the Newsletter - somehow between preparation of the article and publication the date changed from 20th October 1910 to 29th October 1910 so she is even older than we claimed! Sorry about that Eileen and Tony - we will put a note in the the next issue especially as Tony tells me that we got the name of his birthplace wrong as well - He was born on the Norwegian Whaling vessel 'Ørn' and not the 'Urm' as published. Whilst several people made have spotted the first error I guess few would have noticed the second - we do try but clearly sometime we fail to be perfect, but then who is!

Eileen Pickford at 100 + 2 days

Nat West Island Games on Isle of Wight

Just back from a holiday that included a visit to the Isle of Wight where we were able to watch some the Falkland Islanders competing in the event. Young Sorrell Pompert-Robinson was our only swimming competitor but managed to put insome of her best times in her events and came second in the heat we were able to watch. We also watched some of the football, golf, shooting and badminton where the Falkland Island competitors got some good results against much stronger competitors from some of the larger islands taking part. Saul Pitaluga's 10th position in the Automatic Ball Trap and Sarah Bowles 17th position in the Ladies Golf were both worthy of mention. We only had time for a little of the Badminston but our players fought hard against much stronger competition. In all the games the opportunity to compete against other Islands must have been valuable experience and I am sure we shall see some of our younger players again in future games. The weather was kind with plenty of sunshine so we had a good time and the players seemed to enjoy themselves. It was good to meet some of those taking part and in particular Ailie Biggs and Patrick Watts busy reporting back to the Islands the outcome of the various events. Ailie's audio reports were also of value to us in keeping us up to date in what was going on. No pictures I'm afraid as the camera played up. Well done to all involved from the Falkland Islands.