News / Blog - Sports News

I mentioned in yesterday's Blog what a wonderful mild autumnal weekend we have enjoyed in Guernsey.

I also commented how I passed a father and son making the best of the weather by building sand castles on Chouet beach, in the middle of November!

However I didn't have time to join them as I was already late arriving at the Autocross meeting after photographing the MTB XC in Talbot Valley. Those pics are here:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICS OF THE MTB XC

I'm pleased to say that I did have time to capture some of the Banger action and it is those pics that are the next uploads to the Gallery.

Take a look at them here:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICS OF ROUND 5 OF THE AUTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP

What a fantastic November day in Guernsey.

The perfect illustration was when I walked down onto Chouet beach to photograph the Banger racing and I passed a father making sand castles with his son... the day was just too good to waste!

It's been a busy weekend of 'togging for me including GFC football (a great 5-2 win lads) at Footes Lane, Ten bouts of dinner boxing at St Pierre Park Hotel. A gig - for a change!

The first round of the Guernsey Velo Club's Winter MTB XC in a seasonal Talbot Valley.... and then on to the Autocross racing at Chouet. Love it!

All the pics will follow, but for now the MTB XC gallery is online here:
CLICK TO VIEW ROUND 1 OF THE GVC WINTER XC SERIES

The Phoenix Flames had a final practice session at Beau Sejour before they left for the International Roller Skating competition in China.

The team was made up by Kirsty Bell, Emilia Bianco, Chloe Dyke and Monica Dekker. I popped along to capture a few images of their last training session.

The pics can be viewed by following this link:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF THE PHOENIX FLAMES TRAINING SESSION

Today I enjoyed the crisp but windy afternoon down at L'Ancresse as I photographed some of the 2017 FNB Stonecrusher Cross Country.

There was a great turnout of competitors - no doubt encouraged by what one of the the course marshals described as perfect XC weather!

I've completed a quick Press edit and I've now added a new picture gallery featuring some extra pics:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF THE STONECRUSHER CROSS COUNTRY

At this time of year I normally have time to catch up with some of the system administration and organization... but not this year!

Somehow the work keeps coming in this year. This is great but it has left me with a pile of editing and digital asset management to complete!

But first I need to catch up with some gallery updates that have been waiting for my attention.

I've just finished one of the years larger and interesting picture edits. This update is of all the action from the recent 'OKTOBER SLUGFEST' that was organized by the Guernsey Amalgamated Boxing Club at Beau Sejour.

These latest updates can be viewed here:
CLICK TO VIEW THE LATEST OKTOBER SLUGFEST PICTURES

A new Blog as short as I can make it... I've got lots more editing to do!

Pics of the weekends Creasey's Open Junior Badminton held at the Badminton Halls in the Rohais are now online.

Follow this link to view the pictures:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF THE 2017 CREASEYS JUNIOR OPEN BADMINTON

International Basketball arrived at St Sampsons High at the weekend when the Sierra Leone champions Cannon Royals visited to play the Guernsey men's team.

The home side managed an impressive win with the final result being 64-59. I went along to take pics of this historic event and they can now be viewed in a new picture gallery.

Follow this link to see the pics:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE GALLERY OF BASKETBALL PICS

I'm sorry to say that occasionally I am reminded that I'm only a couple of years away from my theoretical retirement. I call it theoretical as at the moment I don't think for a minute that I could possibly give up on a working day!

Maybe I'll mellow and slow down as time passes by for now I seem to be working as hard as any other time in my life.

But... there's always a but! I can't deny that after a prolonged period of work my body simply doesn't recover from the effort as well as it used to. Sad but true.

I'm currently in that 'zone' after a very busy weekend which included a sixteen hour day on Saturday!

The workload has included coverage of:
Creasey's Junior Open Badminton Championship at the Rohais
St Martins v St Pauls football at Blanche Piere Lane
Columbians v Indies Hockey at Footes Lane
Guernsey v Cannon Royals Basketball at St Sampsons High
Twelve bouts of Boxing Guernsey ABC v England UNI at Beau Sejour
Round 8 of the GK&MC Summer Kart Series at The Track
Round 3 of the Autocross Club Winter Championship at Chouet
and GMC&CC Trials at Corbiere.

All these assignments are only 'half done' once the pics are taken as they then need to be sorted, edited, tagged and sent off to the particular clients. And I haven't even mentioned the updates needed on this website and the processing of the orders for prints and files as they come in!

Phew, no wonder I'm knackered!

However there's no slacking yet as the main editing and updating has only just begun. You can check out the results so far in these new Galleries:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF ROUND 8 OF THE SUMMER KART SERIES

CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF ROUND 3 OF THE WINTER AUTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP

CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF THE TRIALS EVENT AT CORBIERE

I photographed three sports at the weekend.

Each one involved racing with the fastest movers taking the podium spots.

The difference was the how competitors got from start to finish.

On Saturday the first racers had the benefit of an engine... they were riding Motocross bikes and they literally flew!

I photographed the action until the lunch break and then I headed north to Delancey Park where competitors had to rely on their own 'horse power' as they ran around the Cross Country course in the first race of the 2017/18 FNB XC Series.

On Sunday there was more racing to photograph... again on two wheels but this time it was only man-power getting the riders to the finish line. A course had been set up in the Guet for round 3 of the Guernsey Velo Club's Mini Enduro Series.

Photographing the three events made up just a part of another busy weekend and they are the first galleries that are online. Follow these links to view the pics:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE MOTOCROSS RACING
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FNB XC RACE
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE MINI ENDURO RACING

Continuing with the last Blog I've now edited three more recent Sports photoshoots.

Two updates are of the Rawlinson Cup football that took place last week. This competition precedes the start of the Priaulx League. It offers the first chance to see what changes Club's have made during the break. The new galleries feature the Rawlinson Cup games - North v Saints and Sylvans v Rovers.

Then there are two updates to the Cricket Gallery. As we look forward to the start of league football the cricket season is coming to and end. The new pics feature the Guernsey Cricket Board Development XI v Rovers and Griffins v Irregulars Barbarians.

View the pics here:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE RAWLINSON CUP PICS
CLICK HERE TO VIEW CRICKET PICS

Busy, busy, busy. That seems to be how it is every day at the moment.

Inevitably some of the Gallery updates are a bit slow! In an effort to catch up, so far today, I've made two new updates to the picture galleries... one recent, one from a week ago.

First up is the action from the Guernsey Football Club's opening game in the Bostic South Football League. The home game was against East Grinstead Town who put in a strong performance by scoring a very early goal and then making a final push to equalize in the last minutes of the game.

With the score at 3-2 for Guernsey the final minutes were tense as East Grinstead Town tried to level the score. However it was Guernsey who knocked in a final goal making the result a 4-2 win for the local team!

This was an impressive performance in the first game of the long season. Keep it up fellas.

The second gallery update features another Guernsey Velo Club race. This update showcases one of the MTB Summer Crit Series held at Bordeaux.

I've still got a long list of outstanding updates. Keep a check on this News Blog for details.

The two new galleries can be viewed here:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE GFC v EAST GRINSTEAD PICS
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE GVC SUMMER CRIT PICS

Well how about that. I turn my back for a couple of days and the viewing total on this website passes through another MILLION MILESTONE!

I've been very busy for the last week and it seems that the 18 MILLION VIEWS total was broken at the weekend... and I've only just noticed!

What is also quite amazing is that the last five days has seen an extra 100,000 views added to the total!

Thanks for the continued support :-)

You can read a few of the previous MILLION MILESTONE Blogs by clicking here:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PREVIOUS MILLION MILESTONE BLOGS

Stage 6 of the 2017 OSA All Terrain Challenge took place yesterday in torrential rain with competitors facing a waterfall running down the steep steps on the cliffs at Jerbourg.

Remarkably there were quite a lot of smiles from the runners as they completed the stage... what a strange lot!

I stood out in the downpour for over an hour and I think I ended up wetter than I've ever been on a photo assignment. I also completed the the course after working my way down to the bottom during the race.

Unfortunately it seems that the old rule that says 'what goes up must come down' works in the other direction too.

It goes without saying that by the time I had made it back to the top of the cliff I was both saturated and hot and steamy! All just for a few pics!

Photographers must be as made as the competitors it seems!

I've added a Gallery of pics here:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICS OF THE 2017 OSA ALL TERRAIN CHALLENGE

I recently photographed the Phoenix Artistic Roller Skating Club's 2017 Competition at Beau Sejour.

This was my first time photographing Roller Skating and I left the event with a feeling of admiration for the talent of so many youngsters who had clearly devoted a lot of time into perfecting their performances.

This sport is quite challenging to photograph. It is fast moving with quick changes of direction. The venue (Beau Sejour sports hall) offers no help in adding interest to the background and the hall lighting is poor and has a habit of changing colour between shots!

You might think that all those difficulties would mean I would hate the job. But no, it was quite the opposite.

I'm always looking for a new challenge and I hope I captured some of the highlights of each performance and I hope I have the opportunity to photograph this competition again sometime.

I've added a Gallery featuring some of the competition. The Gallery is password protected. Please contact me here SEND AN E-MAIL TO ASK FOR THE PASSWORD and I will give you the Password.

The Gallery can be viewed here:
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PHOENIX ROLLER SKATING GALLERY

The weekend has been very busy but what great fun.

It was about as diverse as you could make it... just how I like it!

Over the two days I have photographed a Sky Bet Championship football team, Bristol City, playing a friendly against Guernsey Football Club at Footes Lane.

As a contrast to that I captured some of the 'action' during the Guernsey Bowls Tri-Test match at the Corbet Field. This featured teams from Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Jersey.

Another summer sport that was on the list was a Praxis CI League Cricket match at the College Playing Field, 2mi Wanderers Irregulars vs Canaccord Genuity Griffins.

Then to mix things up a bit more there was Motorsport action at Vazon Bay for the GK&MC Sprint meeting.

Now that list would have been interesting enough as it is but the weekend continued with a photoshoot at the Pheonix Artistic Roller Skating Club's competition at Beau Sejour. This was the first time I had been asked to cover this event and I was very impressed by the standard of performances.

.... and that wasn't the end of the 'togging. A quick visit was booked for me to photograph Noi Monachan and her garden which was opened to the public in aid of the Guernsey Headway Charity.

Oh, and there was a bit of gig photography added to the list to complete the mix!

All that photography has left me with some editing to do... but that is well on the way. You can view the first galleries featuring the Guernsey Bowls Tri-Test match, the Praxis CI League Cricket match and the GFC vs Bristol City football.

Follow these links to view the first pics:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICS OF THE GFC vs BRISTOL CITY FOOTBALL
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICS OF THE BOWLS TRI-TEST
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICS OF THE PRAXIS CI CRICKET

I suppose I should thank the MTB section of the Guernsey Velo Club for getting me out of my sleeping bag this morning... it turned out that fresh air was probably a good antidote to my Chaos Festival hangover ;-)

It was sheer willpower that got me motivated together with the promise that I should be able to capture some good pics at the new custom built jump.

So as I headed off from the festival carpark at Pleinmont in my Tallpictures van/Motorhome my ears were still ringing from the two previous nights of music and my head was still a bit 'fuzzy'!

However there's nothing better to distract a sports photographer from his pain than a bit of dramatic action... and that's exactly what was on offer. The new jump was indeed a great place to get impressive action pics.

I've added a new gallery of the mornings racing.

When that job was done I headed back to the Chaos Music and Bike Festival for one last night of fun.

Those pics will follow shortly together with all the action from the Condor Ferries International SandAce ACU British Championships held at Vazon Bay on Saturday. You can see it's been another hectic weekend :-)
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE PETIT BOT MTB DOWNHILL PICS

The shortest Blog ever?

This is just a quickie to add a link to the latest picture gallery featuring Saturday's Cricket game at the College Field - Elizabeth College 1st XI vs NGIT Cobo Tigers 1st XI.

View the pics here:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE LATEST CRICKET PICS

After seeing the weekends news reports about the horrific terrorist activity in London I reflected on how lucky we are to live on our small safe island.

Guernseymen and women know that our Channel Islands offer us a special place to live, away from the extremes of the modern world. It is very rare that any major incident comes close to our sandy shores.

We enjoy a calm, peaceful lifestyle and we are spoilt by the choice of activities and sports easily available to keep our leisure lives busy. Also, we can easily (and no, I'm not trying to start a debate about Aurigny and Condor travel difficulties) gain access to the wider world as and when we choose and we are assured that Guernsey will remain a 'safe haven' whenever we return.

The observation that 'triggered' (pun intended) my reflection was the realization that firearms have featured both in the national and local news and also in my own weekend’s photographic work.

Firstly there was the use of firearms in London to end the violent act of terrorism. It is sad to say that this use of weapons in modern society has become a necessary reality and we have to be grateful that those charged with the task of keeping us safe are brave, highly trained and capable.

There was also a display of weapons on the streets of Guernsey. A few armed police officers were patrolling St Peter Port to reassure us that our own safety is a priority.

However on Sunday there was a second display of weaponry in St Peter Port... but this time they were historic and part of the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry Commemoration Parade. It is one hundred years since over one thousand Guernseymen were sent to fight in France. More than 300 didn't return. This was a timely reminder of the horrible use of weaponry in warfare and it was an honour to remember those who paid such a high price protecting us all.

But it isn't always the case that firearms are used in anger. This was proven to me as two of my weekend’s assignments involved the use of firearms... but this time they were used for sport.

On Saturday I photographed the XMA Junior Schools Individual Athletics Championships at Footes Lane where a starting pistol played an important role in the track events.

I then covered the Guernsey Rifle Club's weekend competition at the Fort Le Marchant range against a visiting team from the National Rifle Association. I have photographed rifle shooting before and it never fails to strike me how powerful and loud a high velocity rifle is when you are standing just feet away from the competitors. However I also appreciate that I'm completely safe in the controlled environment.

So my weekend has shown how contrasting places and experiences can be. For a few unlucky people in London life will never be the same again because of the use of knives and firearms. In Guernsey we simply went about our normal lives and I’m thankful that my only contact with a weapon was entirely safe… and long may that continue.

I’ve added a couple of picture galleries that feature the NRA weekend and the Junior Athletics:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF THE XMA JUNIOR SCHOOLS ATHLETICS
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF THE NRA WEEKEND

As this website smashes through 17 MILLION VIEWS I maintain the effort to keep the updates coming.

CLICK HERE TO READ MY 17 MILLION VIEWS BLOG

The variety of work that makes up an average week of photography keeps everything interesting for me... and I'm pleased to say a few of you too, judging by the amount of picture views made every day on this website :-)

As an example of some of the variety of photoshoots there have been three new galleries added today. They feature Round three of the GK&MC Summer Kart Championship.

Then there are pics of Jo Reeve's fortieth birthday gig at the Golden Lion which saw Gay Army make a rare live appearance.

There's also a gallery of cricket pics that I captured during the Loveridge Cup half-time at KGV. See the previous Blog for those pics.

All this still doesn't mean that I'm up to date with the weeks work yet... but I'm definitely three steps closer!

These links will take you to the new uploads:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ROUND 3 OF THE SUMMER KART SERIES
CLICK HERE TO VIEW GAY ARMY PLAYING AT THE GOLDEN LION
CLICK HERE TO VIEW CRICKET AT KGV

This is just a quickie to keep you up-to-date with another couple of new galleries featuring some of the Bank Holiday weekend action.

My previous Blog offers a bit more information regarding the weekends work.

The latest two updates feature the Loveridge Cup U18's Final football game a KGV - Sylvans vs Rangers.

Then there's another update featuring the fourth round of the Guernsey Motor Cycle & Car Club 2017 Sandracing Championship at Vazon Bay.

I've still got a load of updates to make... keep tuned into this Blog page for more details....

These are the latest galleries:
CLICK TO VIEW PICS OF THE LOVERIDGE CUP FINAL
CLICK TO VIEW ROUND 4 OF THE SANDRACING CHAMPIONSHIP