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CGAJ President

Name: Alan Cross

Alan trained as a teacher of physical education and taught and lectured in schools and colleges in England before moving coming to Jersey in 1980 as Adviser for Physical Education and Sport. He retired in 1998 after a 37 year career involved in promoting physical education and sport in a wide range of educational institutions. He is married to Ann and has two children, Suzie and Jeremy. His daughter is an Accountant at the Royal Bank of Canada and his son, Jeremy, has a Ph.D in Sports Psychology and was a member of Team Jersey for the Melbourne 2006 Games. He is a county standard tennis player and was the Island Games Tennis Men’s Singles champion in 1993, 1995 and in 2001.

Alan was a keen all round sportsman in his younger days with particular successes in rugby union, athletics and tennis. He later concentrated on coaching trampolining, tennis and athletics with a number of national school champions to his credit. He still plays tennis and golf regularly and fails to recognise that he will never achieve a single figure golf handicap.

While on the staff of Carnegie College of P.E. in Leeds in the 1970’s, he was invited to undertake numerous specialist lecture tours of African countries for the British Council. Alan was later awarded a Master of Education degree from Leicester University in 1979.

Alan was instrumental in organising and managing the Jersey team for the First Island Games and formed the Island Games Association of Jersey following that event. He became a member of the IGA Executive Committee in 1985 and was re-elected to that committee up to the 2001 Isle of Man Games when he retired having completed a six year period as the International Chairman.. Alan has also shown an interest in sport for disabled and was the founder member of the Jersey Sports Association for the Disabled in 1986 and team manager for many of their visits to the International Summer School Federation programmes in the Isle of Man, Malta, etc.

Alan was elected as Secretary to the Commonwealth Games Association of Jersey in April 2003 and, as one of the five Association Officers, was responsible for initiating a major review of the Association’s Constitution and its Appeals and Selection procedures. He has represented the Association at all Commonwealth Games Federation’s General Assemblies since 2003 and was a member of Team Jersey at both the 2006 Melbourne Games and the 2010 Delhi Games. He has been responsible for compiling an archive of the names of Jersey athletes that have represented the Island at all Commonwealth Games since the 1958 Cardiff Empire Games when Jersey first entered a team and has edited a history booklet entitled ‘The Commonwealth Games Association of Jersey 1957 to 2007’.

Alan was elected President of the Association in April 2011 and looks forward to leading the Association in its preparations for both the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games in the Isle of Man and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. When not fulfilling his duties as the Association’s President, Alan enjoys playing tennis and golf.