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sland dream sunk by tidal wave of goals
By Russell Kempson
Sark have just lost 19-0 to Gibraltar. But are they dispirited?
LEON BURLETSON, THE SARK goalkeeper, had had a stormer by all accounts. Sure, he needed a few slices of good fortune — after all, Isle of Wight had struck the woodwork six times and had a goal disallowed. Yet, time after time, Burletson had made save after save, even managing to keep out two penalties. It was heroic stuff.
In the end, though, it was in vain. Sark lost 20-0 and the match stats were grisly: Isle of Wight had 47 shots on target, 37 off target and forced 24 corners; Sark’s tally amounted to 0, 0 and 0. Richie Newbury, Burletson’s counterpart, had touched the ball once, from an overhit clearance. The 2003 Island Games, held on Guernsey, had become a trial not by fire but by raging inferno.
Burletson, 20, looks back not in anger. It was a summer of huge content for the 6ft 3in gardener, when he became an international player and starred alongside his fellow dreamers from Gotland and Greenland, Shetland and Orkney. Sark (pop: 550), the smallest of the competing nations, had played their part. And it made everything worthwhile, even the 70 goals conceded in four matches.
“It got a bit depressing by the end of the game, a bit soul-destroying,” Burletson said, “but we never let it get us down, we never dropped our heads. I think we were a little unlucky, actually. All we needed was a bit more experience. I’d love to lead that sort of life all the time. It was just great to be there. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Sark had opened the biennial tournament inauspiciously, losing 19-0 to Gibraltar in their qualifying group. Rowan Gill, the first-choice goalkeeper, then had to withdraw because of injury before the Isle of Wight whipping. Burletson again replaced him for the third match, against Greenland, and, despite the 16-0 defeat, felt more at ease with the world.
“I probably played better than in my first game,” he said. “Greenland needed to beat us by 21 to progress past the Isle of Wight and all the Wight boys were supporting us from the touchline. They cheered every tackle, every goalline clearance, and we effectively knocked Greenland out of the competition. That was something.” Shane Moon, the Sark coach, recalled Gill for their final fixture — “I tore a muscle at the top of my leg,” Burletson said, “probably from taking so many goal kicks” — and his side signed off with a 15-0 loss against mighty Froya, a speck off the west coast of Norway. The flight of fantasy was over.
Sark have no delusions of grandeur. They had trained for eight months on their sloping pitch next to The Mermaid pub — mostly under the guidance of Moon, when he could afford the £20.50 return boat trip from Guernsey — and sacrificed a week’s pay to compete in the Island Games. It cost Burletson about £300 in lost wages.
Traditional antipathy — inhabitants of Guernsey often refer to their neighbours as “a load of drunks hanging off a rock” — was cast aside and the happy band of tractor mechanics, engineers, barmen and carpenters received a rousing reception wherever they pitched up. “A woman from Switzerland keeps phoning me,” Moon said. “She says we’re the only international side that she hasn’t got a team photo of. Us? An international side? It’s marvellous.”
Reality has kicked in, too. On the three-mile-long, 1½-mile-wide outcrop, the last feudal state in Europe, on which cars are banned and the bicycle and horse are the favourite modes of transport, it is back to work. Barrie Dewsbury had kept his younger team-mates going from midfield — he is 52 — but has returned to the building site.
“We tried to score and had the chances,” Dewsbury said, “but when they came along, we’d worked so hard defending that we had no energy left to take them. No one knew what to expect beforehand and, yes, I did wonder at times what I’d got myself into. But we got a great response from everyone and, no, it hasn’t really changed my life.”
The Games had their controversy. Wendy Toms, the former Premier League assistant referee, sent off four Rhodes players in their game against Guernsey. When she issued a fifth red card, the match had to be abandoned. “It wasn’t her fault,” Dave Dorey, the former chief executive officer of the Guernsey FA, said. “The Rhodes lads lost it.” The Isle of Man lost it, too, beaten 3-1 by Guernsey in a final watched by a crowd of 6,000.
Sark were beaten heavily, four times, but were enriched by the exposure, on and off the pitch. Sadly, the expense is likely to prevent them from entering again, when the Games reconvene on Shetland in 2005. “I’ll be 54 then, anyway,” Dewsbury said. “I’m not sure that I’ll be able to make it.”
POOR RELATIONS
The likes of Steven Gerrard and David James earn millions. Compare that with their Sark counterparts . . .
BARRIE DEWSBURY
Position: Midfield
Age: 52
Football experience: Huddersfield Town schoolboy, Nottinghamshire Under-18s, Retford Town, Sutton Town
Honours: Midland League Cup winner
International caps: 4
Profession: Builder, former PE teacher
LEON BURLETSON
Position: Goalkeeper
Age: 20
Football experience: Arundel FC
Honours: Arundel youth team goalkeeper-of-the-year award
International caps: 2
Profession: Gardener
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