Congratulations Deborah and Gareth!
Wed, 08 Jun 2011
The following recent news release proves that there is more to the NatWest Island Games than sport and competition!!
There are friendships, meetings and conversations as well as all the other things that make life enjoyable and interesting. Love for example! When you are all in the Isle of Wight it is the wish of all the Games organisers that you take the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends - remembering of course always to take care of our old ones as well! Since our Games started in 1985 the distance between our islands has become much, much smaller. Although the actual mileage has not changed better communications have brought them much closer. Today people do not have to wait for the next Games to meet up again. We now have Facebook, Skype and many other ways to stay in contact. Quite a few of our competitors however seem to have taken it a step further and created new families in their own "Inter-Island" cooperation - see below the fantastic story about Deborah from Shetland and Gareth from Ynys Mon. Thanks to people like them the NatWest Island Games means so much more than just sport!
Jorgen Pettersson, IIGA Chairman
Lucky Couple in NatWest Island Games Marriage
In the summer of 2010 a girl from Shetland, Deborah Inskter, married a boy from Ynys Mon, Gareth Owen. They met at the NatWest Island Games in Shetland 2005. Here is Deborah's own story:
"I had been back in Shetland teaching in the Anderson Hight School after 7 years living, studying and working in Galsgow. The AHS had sent me to a training course in Edinburgh and I was on the ferry on my way back to Shetland for the NatWest Island Games 2005 travelling with my sister and my best friend.
We encountered the Ynys Mon football team on the ferry and ended up having a very long night socialising in the bar, they were a very lively bunch and interested to hear what the Shetland experience would be like. Many of them had never heard of Shetland before and did not realise they would be spending 14 hours on a ferry in order to get there. Gareth Owen was centre back for the Ynys Mon team, it was his first Games. He was born and brough up in Ynys Mon and had been playing semi-professional football from a young age, he played for Cemaes Bay in the league of Wales at age 16 and then for various teams in the Cymru Alliance (North Wales first division).
After the ferry trip, we bumped into each other again when me and my friends went to watch the match in Frasier Park in Scalloway where the Ynys Mon team were based for the duration of their stay. The team had an okay tournament football wise and a fabulous time socially! They were made to feel very much at home in Scalloway and thought that Shetland had done a fantastic job of hosting the Games.
Gaz and I kept in touch and I went down to Bangor, North Wales in 2006. Gaz proposed during a weekend away in Paris in 2009, and we were married on the 31st July 2010.
We are now living back on Anglesey in IIanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (most people abbreviate this surprisingly! Llanfair PG is easier) Gaz has continued to play in the Cymru Alliance and was part of the only Anglesey based football club to ever win the league and cup double. He is preparing for his fourth NatWest Island Games having been to Rhodes and Aland. He will captain the team in the Isle of Wight and we are hoping that the Shetlanders will be cheering them on this time as we have heard rumours that the Shetland boys will not be puttinga team out? Here's hoping for much success for both our islands in as many sports as possible!".
