‘The island lives in hope’: Alderney out to end 102-year wait for win

One hundred and two years of hurt. Alderney’s losing streak in the Muratti Vase, the annual tournament to decide the champion of the Channel Islands between themselves, Jersey and Guernsey, is something to behold. Their Muratti triumph in 1920 is not just the last time they won the competition, it’s the last time they won a match in it.

Not that it is a particularly fair fight, with Jersey’s population of 112,000 and Guernsey’s 68,000 dwarfing the 1,800 on Alderney. “Winning would be like a non-league team beating a Premier League side,” says the club secretary, Lee Sanders. “The gulf is probably comparable with that. But it is not impossible.”

It’s the hope that, year after year, keeps Alderney coming back. There is fresh enthusiasm for this Saturday’s game against Guernsey. However frequent or devastating the Muratti defeat – the record loss stands at 18-0 (to Jersey) in 1994 – the gilded opportunity to be the team that finally break the losing run is tantalising.

Since the famous 1920 win, Alderney have scored 39 goals, and conceded 462 in the fixture. “We’ve had some close matches recently,” remarks Reg Atkins, Alderney’s chairman for six years and involved since 2002. “We’ve also been annihilated. The whole island lives in hope rather than expectation.”

Tensions run high between the islands, and Alderney’s mindset is influenced by the fact that in the past Jersey and Guernsey have seen victory over their smaller neighbour as a formality.

“The first year I joined, Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris was manager of Jersey,” Atkins says. “They had already booked their flight home on the proviso that there wouldn’t be extra time, and the tickets for the final were already printed without our names on it. When we hit the post in the