History of the Island Games

History of the Island Games and Falklands participation
by Patrick Watts, Chairman.   

The ISLAND GAMES, sometimes mistakenly called the 'Small' Island Games, began in 1985 as the 'Inter-Island Games' and as part of the Isle of Man International Year of Sport and were intended to be a one-off sporting celebration only. Geoffrey Corlett who became the first Games Director, contacted not only the Islands surrounding Great Britain but encouraged the Scandinavians, Greenland, Iceland, Faroes, St Helena and others to participate. Initially 15 Islands, with 600 competitors and officials took part in 7 sports, with the total cost of staging the Games being put at 70,000 pounds. The track and field events were held on an 8 lane grass track, a far cry from next years Games which the Isle of Man will host for the second time, and which now boasts a new synthetic track in a stadium capable of holding 10,000 spectators. So successful were the Games of '85 that it was decided to hold a similar event 2 years later.

The 1987 Games were held on the Channel Island of Guernsey by which time the number of Islands had increased to 18, the number of sports to 9 and the number of competitors and officials to more than 1,000. The successful staging of the 2nd Games led to the formation of the Island Games Association (IGA) with Geoffrey Corlett being nominated as the first Secretary, and an Executive Committee established. The IGA remain the Governing body and their Constitution provides the guidelines for all competing Islands.
The 1989 Games on the Faroe Islands, which lie midway between Iceland and Norway but which belong to Denmark, saw a slight drop in participation to 15 Islands and 800 competitors and officials in 11 sports. Because the Faroes have few hotels, competitors were required to sleep in school halls and floors.
Despite the increasing Islands membership the Games were still relatively unknown and it was in the early 90's that the Falklands, having already taken part in the 1982. 1986 and 1990 Commonwealth Games, were made aware of the Island Games and Burned Peck traveled to Aaland (a Finnish Island where the population speak only Swedish) in 1991, as an 'observer' and his application for Falklands membership was overwhelmingly accepted the IGA membership. By now the number of sports featured in the Games had risen to 13., while schools were used again to provide sleeping quarters for some competitors.