Organisers of last weekend’s Channel Islands Club Championships are hoping it will become an annual event after two days of competitive touch.

More than 150 players including teams from the UK and Jersey took part in the competition which was organised by Guernsey Touch. Its aim was to give Guernsey teams the chance to play teams from across Europe and give visiting teams the chance to experience the touch scene in the island.

‘When the committee started discussing the idea of hosting an international tournament we really had no idea how successful it would be as Guernsey is still seen as a developing nation within the touch community,’ said Guernsey Touch chairman Andrew Hutton.

‘But I’m delighted to say that it exceeded all of our expectations. The visiting teams provided some outstanding competition, the standard of touch was extremely high and people are already asking us when the next one will be so we hope that it become an annual event for the Channel Islands.’

Bareback Riders brought a mixed team from the UK and Galaxy Touch brought a mixed team from Jersey and joined six other local mixed teams. The UK and Jersey teams combined to create a mens team to play four Guernsey mens teams and also combined to form a womens team against two local sides.

On Saturday teams played in a round robin with the men and women in their own pools and the 8 mixed teams divided into two. On Sunday the top four mens teams played semi-finals and finals with top two womens teams going straight to a final. The bottom two teams from each mixed pool went into a mixed plate with the top two from each pool going into the Mixed Cup.

In the Mixed Plate semi-finals Mercator beat Wombats 7 – 0 and Out of Touch went through after Resolution IT forfeited. Mercator and Out of Touch went through to the final with Mercator winning 3 – 1 to take the only trophy won by a Guernsey team.

In the Mixed Cup semi-final Source Sorcerers lost 1 – 3 to Bareback Riders and in the other game Galaxy eventually took a 6 – 5 win after a tense drop-off with Brotown. Having come together to form a mens and a womens team, the two visiting mixed teams took to opposite sides of the field for the Mixed Cup final with Bareback Riders eventually taking the trophy after a 5 – 2 win.

In the mens semi-finals the combined strength of Bareback and Galaxy proved too much for Green Armee with the visitors going through to the final with an 8 – 1 win. In the other semi-final CISX Anzacs and Leftabels had a close fought battle which ended with a 5 – 4 win for Leftabels after a drop-off. Having lost 1 – 7 to Bareback/Galaxy the previous day, Leftabels knew they had a tough finals ahead of them but they played well with the final score being a 6 – 3 victory for the visitors.

In the womens final Guernsey team Touchy Feely played the combined Bareback/Galaxy and after 25 minutes of play the result was 1 – 1 to make the third drop-off of the day. With just three players left on the pitch, Debbie Wilson broke through for Touchy Feely only to have her try disallowed as she was dummy-half. Within a minute the visitors scored the winning try to take another trophy.

‘Although it would have been fantastic if more of the trophies had stayed in Guernsey, every team should be proud of the way they played. We’re hoping that the visiting teams will come back next year to defend their titles and that we can grow the CICC and attract more teams across,’ said Hutton.