IOW DAY THREE ROUND UP

Maybe because the weather was a bit more like what we are used to in the Falklands, at least in terms of its variability from sunshine to showers and the occasional thunder storm, today, Tuesday was on the whole a very good day for our competitors in the Nat West Island Games and maybe, in the case of the men's golf team, the best ever for a single day in this competition, with three players getting round the Freshwater course in under 80.

Glenn Ross's score of 75 beat his own record of 76 set back in 2003, for a Falkland Islander playing at an international competition. He is currently in joint 18^th position overall, in a field of 71 competitors.

 Not far behind Glenn came Troyd Bowles with 77 and Kevin Clapp with 79, aided greatly, he tells us, by the presence of his sister as his caddy. Ian Stewart, with a score of 93 did not have such a great first day, but the team result, made up of the team's top three scores, puts them in 9^th place out of 18.

Playing the Sandown and Shanklin course, the ladies did not fare as well as the men, but there are still some long days and matches to come. Tomorrow the men play on the Sandown course, which Kevin Clapp feels suits the team best and the ladies head off for Sandown and hopefully, better luck.

The Falklands enjoyed great success in the badminton today, the most satisfying result for the future of badminton in the Falklands being the victory of 13 year-old Ross Stewart, over the much older Lee Yon of St Helena, 21-17 and 21-16. This victory got Ross through to the second round of the men's singles where he lost to the very experienced Andrew Orne of Guernsey, scoring a very respectable 16-21 in the first of the two games played.

Our most experienced badminton player, Doug Clark, also scored a victory in the first round of the singles competition against Taatsi Pederson of Gotland, 21-13 and 21-15, but went out in the second round to Neil Harding of the Isle of Man, after a hard-fought match. Although defeated in the first round, Duane March and Michael Brownlee also scored respectable results, Duane going out 21-13 and 21-8, and Michael 21-16 and 21-17.

In the ladies doubles, both of our teams had a bye into the second round. Anna Luxton and Jo Turner went out 21:6 and 21:9, and Cheryl March and Sonya Arkhipkina went out 21:9 and 21:5.

Tomorrow in the badminton we'll see the woman's singles and the men's doubles, but already with four matches won, the Falklands team have done themselves proud and vastly exceeded their earlier modest hopes for one victory.

Following from their pessimism of yesterday, today our shooters had a much more successful day, with first time shooter Mathew Vincent coming in 37^th place out of a field of 40 competitors in the Sporting event and Saul Pitaluga, who has started to recapture some of his previous form, finishing the first day of the Automatic Ball Trap shoot with 61 hits out of 75, a mere7 points behind the leader on the score board.

Once again the football result, a six to one defeat by Gotland, does no justice to the effort and endeavour of our team, who gave the spectators at the Oakfield FC ground plenty to enjoy and to cheer about. Man of the Match was striker, Rafael Sotomayor, who scored the team's only goal so far this week and had another ball in the back of the net, but was judged to be off-side. Most unfortunate was the tireless Daniel Biggs, who in many respects is the lynch pin of the teams efforts. Through no fault of his own Daniel was credited with two goals, when unavoidable shots were deflected off his body and into the back of the Falkland Islands net.

Whether affected by their country's economic crisis or not, in their match yesterday the team from the Greek island of Rhodes achieved the doubtful record of ten yellow cards and one red and had four players sent off the pitch. If, as is believed, Rhodes have now been banished from the competition, the Falklands will probably play Alderney on Thursday. Should this not be the case, we will\meet the small Channel Island on Friday in the small island competition sponsored by our own Patrick Watts.

Tomorrow, besides the golfers, badminton players and Saul Pitaluga, our lone swimmer Sorrel Pompert-Robertson will be back in the pool for her favourite event, the 50m freestyle. Watch this space!