It is very easy to dismiss competitions such as the Island Games as an irrelevance, especially in this day and age when the football world's attention is firmly fixed on the exploits of those nations, clubs and players at the top table. But, with the 2025 edition of the tournament about to kick off in Orkney, anticipation in the archipelago just to the north of the Scottish mainland has reached fever pitch, and the locals turned out in force to watch the opening ceremony and athletes' parade through the islands' main town, Kirkwall, yesterday afternoon.
Ten islands will be taking part in the men's tournament at the Island Games, and twelve in the women's competition. The hosts will be represented in both tournaments, and the manager of the Orkney men's side, Charlie Alway, is hoping that home advantage will see an upturn in fortunes for Orcadian football.
Alway, a native of Bedfordshire, and his wife came to Orkney around twenty years ago, basically for a change of scenery, and he found himself getting involved with the island team via a fairly unusual route. He spoke to PFB about this and much else in the run-up to the Island Games.
"I’ve been up here in Orkney for about 20 years, and got involved with the local football scene and, through one thing and another, got involved via commentating and, refereeing and managing in the [local] leagues for a few years and I sort of picked up the Orkney job.
"Myself and my assistant Colin “Paddy” Kilpatrick have been managing Orkney FC for the past ten years; first of all, we started off by entering a few cup competitions before we joined the North Caledonian League about ten years ago.
As in most northern regions of Europe, most football in Orkney itself is played during the summer months, but Orkney FC bucks that trend. Alway: "We play in the [North Caledonian League in] winter, but the summer football is a slightly different entity. It’s like the international scene in the local world.
"We’ve got the North Caledonian League from August through Easter, with twenty-four games, and in the summer we [Orkney] play three games: Caithness, which is a county just across the water from us; Wick Academy; and Shetland. So, Orkney basically play three annual games against our nearest neighbours, and those are often1 the only three games we play every summer. Every second summer, we’ve got the Island Games.
Most of the Orkney squad taking part in this yesr's Island Games play for Orkney FC during the regular Scottish season and for a local team during the short summer season. For some of the players, that is a case of biting off more than they can chew, but Alway remains philosophical about it, and doesn't hold it against them.
"Between Orkney Football Club in the winter and [Orkney] in the summer, there’s probably about 75 per cent crossover. So, there’s a few guys who because of their jobs can’t commit to playing in the winter, and then there’s Wick Academy, the local Highland League club which plays at a level above us. Our captain and our best young player play for them, so I typically lose my best players from the North Caledonian League every year.
"That’s the pattern of development we have, that’s our opportunity ladder, and that’s just the way the world is. We just have to wish them well. They still have to train with us because of the travel. We get the benefit of a better player in our training pool helping everyone else get better.
"Typically, because of the amount of travel they have to do, the guys only stick it for about four years, as they basically have to go away on a Friday night and come back on a Sunday, home or away. Even the most dedicated lads do a four-year cycle of that and they’ve had enough.
Alway and Kirkpatrick took charge of Orkney after being in the hotseat at Orkney FC for a number of years, and the opportunity came after a dramatic defeat for Orkney against theor biggest rivals Shetland.
"Paddy and I were taking care of the winter job, until three years ago. The most important game in the local calendar is the [Milne Cup] game against Shetland - that’s our local rivalry; it has been played over a hundred times and it’s important to the local footballing community. There are great links between Orkney and Shetland, as you can imagine; rivalry, friendship, all that sort of stuff.
"Three years ago, we lost 8:0, which was unprecedented and a shock to the system because the year before, we’d beaten then 2:1. This was bit of a seismic shift, and then Paddy and I got appointed to the summer job as well as the winter job after the [Orkney FA] asked the players [for their opinions].
The players asked for Alway and Kirkpatrick to take over the Orkney side, and the Orkney FA agreed to this, which, as Alway said, brought "a bit of continuity."
The two gentlemen's first assignment in charge of the Orkney team saw them lead the squad which went to Guernsey for the 2023 Island Games. Alway saw it as a generally positive experience: "We didn't do too badly. We drew 2:2 against Greenland which was a good result because Greenland were seeded, we lost 2:1 to Bermuda, which was also a good result as they are a talented nation, we beat the Norwegian side Frøya, and in our placement game, we lost 2:1 to the Isle of Man, which, in our world was another good result.
"Frøya and the Isle of Man are both drawn in our group again this year, which is quite nice. Our boys have looked at both those teams; we beat one of them by a goal and lost to the other by a goal, so we feel as though we should be competitive against both of them again."
Alway is quite hopeful that Orkney can improve on their best-ever result, especially as they are enjoying home advantage and are thus seeded. "What that means, on paper", contended Alway, "is that one team is better than us and another are where we would normally be. Isle of Man are better than us, Frøya would be the minnows Hitra are where we would normally be, and the Isle of Man, who are in Pool B, would normally be better than us, but they are unseeded.
"On that basis, we have the opportunity to get out of the group in a way that we have never had before. Every time we've played before, we have had to try and beat two teams that are better than us to try and get out of the group. Normally, that's very unlikely. Of course, it's possible, but its unlikely.
"Our window of opportunity is enhanced by: A, we're at home and are seeded, and B, there are only three groups. One of the second-placed teams can progress, so we have a chance of getting out of the group if we do ourselves justice. It would be the first time Orkney have ever [qualified for the semi-finals].
Alway was cautiously positive about this team's chances of progressing to the last four, but he said that the locals were expecting more: "The expectation of the local footballing public is that we should be getting out of the group. Anything else would be seen as a missed opportunity, disappointing.
"The players and I think we're in with a fighting chance. Once we [theoretically qualify for the semi-finals], the chances are we would be up against Anglesey, the Isle of Man, teams from islands with three or four times the population of Orkney.
"We'd have to perform incredibly well to get a result against one of them. The players aren't under the pressure of having to win the tournament because they're playing at home, but getting out of the group would be deemed to be a good thing to have done."
Orkney's women's team will be playing at the Island Games for the first time, and Alway noted that expectations for them are somewhat lower than for the men's team, and they're also a much younger squad compared to the one under his tutelage.
"It's their first Island Games; they're a fairly new team, a fairly young team and their best player is heavily involved im the athletics as well. She's a young sprinter, maybe about 17 years old, so she may be fatigued after running in the 100 and 200 metres and therefore not always available. They've got Frøya, Gozo and the Isle of Man as well in the group. They might br competitive in the first two games, but the Isle of Man would be a challenge.
"The girls play in the Highland League, and are mid-table, maybe potentially top four. They are a bona-fide women's team, but this will be their first Island Games. Apart from maybe three players, the average age of the squad would be about 20 and haven't played against a team of the calibre of the Isle of Man.
"Apart from two young lads, who are excellent, the vast majority of my players are between 22 and 32. There aren't many old men and young boys, and around fifteen of them have played before in the Island Games, so they're in a different space to the lassies."
One of of the two young players in the men's team Alway referred to is George Ewing, who plays for Wick Academy during the regular season and East United during the local season, and the Orkney manager reckoned he would be one to watch at the tournament: "He's 17, he's quick, he's sharp. He's not particularly flashy, but he does the simple things very, very well. His sister, Jess, is about two or three years older than George, and she'll be playing on the right wing for the women's team."
He mentioned a number of other players he hoped might influence matters on the pitch, including some real characters: "We've got Liam Delday from Thorfinn Kirkwall who played in Anglesey [at the 2019 Inter-Island Games], who's a bit of an idiosyncratic-looking player, a Pat Nevin-type who moves from side to side as much as up and down the pitch. He's a very effective player; when he reached a hundred games for Orkney FC, he scored his seventy-first goal that day.
"We've also got a couple of big, strong, traditional centre-forwards who will be sharing no. 9 duties: Jamie Flett from Stromness, who scored three goals for us in Guernsey, and Toby MacLeod, who's one of these guys who've got the big hair, the dreadlock-style look. They're both big, physically imposing guys with character. They're full of themselves and full of the joys of life [laughs].
"There's also the captain, Owen Rendall, who plays for Wick Academy, and he'll be in central midfield. He's an old-fashioned tackling, breaking the game up, setting up attacks type of guy. Big, strong, not really a footballer but jist someone you want in a football team. He's really good, and his sister, Amy Pickles, will be playing centre-back for the women as well if she's back. She's just had a baby, about six weeks ago. She's probably their best defender.
"We've also got Dan Hourston [Kirkwall Hotspurs], who comes from the island of Papa Westray. He captained the team against Bermuda at the last Island Games, which was nice when you consider he comes from an island with 75 people. [He also played in the first round of this year's Parish Cup competition with a couple of brothers and his father as their Papa Westray, or Papay, team made their bow in the competition.]"
The Orkney squad, big hair fans, Pat Nevin clones, new uncles and all have been busy preparing for the Island Games over the past few weeks. They started off by beating Western Isles by 3 goals to 1, then lost to Caithness on penalties after a 1:1 draw and most recently lost 2:1 against a Wick Academy side containing George Ewing.
They have also employed the services of sports psychologists and sports nutritionists in the hope of obtaining that extra edge, and the players have been doing extra training under their own steam, so they have been nothing if not thorough in their preparations.
"I've been around most of these players for the past ten years, and I have a pretty good relationship with them. They're guys I trust as players and as men. We had an original squad of thirty-two players, and the first sixteen pretty much pick themselves, but you could have picked any four of the other sixteen, they're all good players.
"But, you've got to get the balance right. It isn't about picking the best twenty, it's about picking the right twenty. We've got a fair chance of having a good crack at it. We aren't going to rip up any trees, but we aren't going to throw up on our own feet, either."
ORKNEY SQUAD
GOALKEEPERS
1 Liam VALENTINE (Kirkwall Thorfinn); 23 Cameron McCONNACHIE (Stromness Athletic)
DEFENDERS
2 Daniel HOURSTON (Kirkwall Hotspurs); 3 Jason SCOTT (East United); 4 Owen RENDALL (Kirkwall Hotspurs); 5 Wayne KIRKNESS (Kirkwall Thorfinn); 14 Lee RENDALL (East United); 15 Aiden DREVER (East United); 17 Kyle DREVER (Kirkwall Hotspurs); 18 Connan RENDALL (Kirkwall Rovers); 19 Jimmy CRAIGIE (Stromness Athletic)
MIDFIELDERS
6 Callan JESSIMAN (Stromness Athletic): 7 Joe WILSON (Kitkwall Hotspurs); 8 Jay FOUBISTER (Kirkwall Thorfinn); 12 Steven HELLIWELL (East United); 16 Liam DELDAY (Kirkwall Thorfinn); 20 George EWING (East United)
FORWARDS
9 Jamie FLETT (Stromness Athletic); 10 Toby MacLEOD (Stromness Athletic); 11 Owen YOUNG (Stromness Athletic)
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many thanks to Charlie Alway for his time and patience; squad-list correct as of 26 June.
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