Members of the Jersey Spartan Athletic Club turned up in the wet and windy conditions at Corbière at 8 o’clock yesterday morning all set to run with the baton from there to Les Creux, where Island bowlers were waiting to take possession.
However, the camera recording the relay and the baton itself were vulnerable to the very damp conditions and it was decided that the group should run only short distance before handing over the baton to the bowlers.
Alan Cross, relay co-ordinator and general secretary of the Commonwealth Games Association of Jersey, said that although the baton was equipped with a waterproof casing, it could not have coped with the kind of heavy rainfall experienced yesterday.
The wet weather meant that all of the morning’s section of the relay was confined to indoors. There were some respite at lunchtime, however, and members of the Jersey Commonwealth Games Target Shooting Association were able to take it from the Town Hall to the Bailiff’s Chambers.
After it was welcomed officially by the Bailiff, Michael Birt, it was placed on display in the Royal Square for about half an hour when members of the Indian community – the 2010 Commonwealth Games are to be staged in Delhi – and other members of the public took the opportunity to see it at close quarters.
The baton, which contains a message from the Queen to be read out at the opening ceremony of the Games, left Buckingham Palace at the end of October on a tour of all 71 Commonwealth countries.
It has been in Jersey for two days, with students from 42 Island schools and colleges and members of Jersey Commonwealth Association sports taking part in the relay. The baton leaves for Guernsey tomorrow.
Never mind the weather … the group of Spartan members at Corbière yesterday morning. From the left, they are Sue Le Ruez, Ana Goncalves, Judith Russell, Sam Horsfall, Paul Huddlestone, Shirley Rowe, Ellen Barr, Barbara Parker, Sam O’Hare, Sylvia Thompson and Jon and Sue Mawson
