INTERNATIONAL ISLAND GAMES

The XVIII Nat West International Island Games 2019 will be held on Gibraltar, the only bidders. Though the Island cannot support all the sports, it is hosting a number of competitions and other events are "spread around"! Football for example is being held unofficially on Anglesey-Ynys Mon because The Rock doesn't have enough pitches! The island hopes to host the 2025 games.
There is a range of sports, most rare is 10 PIN bowling, but favourites include athletics, triathalon judo and squash and MORE.

This IIGA biannual event will take place between July 6-12th. So excited are we, that Her Majesty's Government Philatelic Bureau is publishing a set of commemorate stamps to recognise the occasion. The mascot shown above is known as HOPE; no doubt plastics come into the occasion!

Yes these stamps are belters! There was a LIVE DRAW for the Table Tennis....over 2200 competitors will take part in over 200 events from 14 sports. The Hassans International Law firm will be a Platinum sponsor for the games and the University of Central Lancashire will provide medical and sports' therapy during the games. Golf has been held in every games since 1997 but this year there is none-NO COURSE!
First held on the Isle of Man in 1985, 700 competitors from 15 countries turned up. Two years later on Guernsey, numbers increased and more recently the games have been held in Bermuda (2013), Jersey (2015) and on in 2017 in Gotland.
You may turn to your Globe or Atlas and have a lesson: find Aland, Froya, Saaremaa, the Falklands and of course the Isle of Wight.
Football champs are the Isle of Man who beat Greenland 6-0 in Gotland in 2017.
Accommodation ranges from school rooms to a cruise ship which bunks 3,000.