Jo Ward - page 9

Engineering CBC’s Move to new premises

Principal Engineer at Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) John Balestrino is one of the many people involved in having facilitated the move from their old premises into new, purpose-built accommodation at South Jumpers Bastion. GBC is the Rock’s public service and national broadcaster and after 41 years on the old site it was evident that the building at South Barrack Road was no longer fit for purpose.  

John proudly takes me on a tour of the new facility. Spread over five floors and designed around a central open plan atrium it comprises two television studios, vision and audio control rooms, four radio studios as well as the production and technical rooms and administration offices. “What we have here is leaps and bounds over what we had before,” John comments. “The remit was that we had to move as much as possible from the old building to here, with a financing package put in place by the Government and the Corporation to cover the new equipment and other items that were needed.”

John and his colleague, Principal Technologist Mario Torres, were among a small number of staff who were mostly on site for the nine months before GBC finally moved into its new home on the 7th August. “We have built this from the bottom up under the guidance of the then Chief Engineering & Technology Officer, Michael Corcoran. It was a shell before that and I used to come and go on an ad hoc basis, but now it is finished I still find it difficult to find my way around and have to think where I am going,” he laughs. 

It was a stroke of fate that John ended up working for GBC for the past eighteen years. “My ambition was to work in power generation,” he explains. “It was whilst I was in my final year at Manchester Metropolitan University when my mum rang me up early on a Saturday morning and told me she had just heard there was a vacancy for a job at GBC that would be perfect for me.” Because he had been looking for jobs in the UK, John dismissed her call but when he flew back to Gibraltar for the Christmas break, his mum had the application forms ready for him to fill in. “My family were very keen for me to work at GBC, with my granny even paying for my flights to come back for the interview.”

After a successful interview, John was offered the position with GBC who were happy to wait for him until he had finished his course at University. “I started as a Trainee Engineer and then I became Assistant Engineer, which gave me time to learn on the job,” he states. The technology in those days was very different and John has had to adapt as it changed. “I have a joke with some of the members of GBC that I am a young/old person because I got the tail end of the analogue era which for some was the golden era.”

“We had to be inventive and would sometimes have to play around with gadgets to put something together to make it work,” he says. “The workshop then was a hive of energy in the sense that we would have VT players open and people were changing boards and components. One director came up with the idea of having a buzzer with a flashing light, and I remember using an old fire alarm beacon to solve his dilemma – we were very old school in those days.”

As Principal Engineer, John has been responsible for rolling out the relocation of the main transmission systems, studio lighting and overseeing the transfer of satellite dishes. “I was involved with Michael Corcoran who led the technical design of the broadcast infrastructure,” he confirms. Considering the size of the task at hand, and with a small team of eight technical people, it has required a huge effort, that has worked perfectly alongside the teams of specialist systems integrators who have designed, built and fitted out the television and radio backbone infrastructure, studios, edit suites and control rooms, after GBC’s management team supported by a renowned media centre construction consultant designed the layout of the new Broadcasting House. 

Once the infrastructure was built, John had to procure some extra antennas, cabling, connectors and clamps and would go up on to the roof of the new building to install them, weather permitting. “The only outage we had was for about twenty minutes one evening in July when I tested the whole chain and ran some tests on the transmitters,” he states.  

On the night of the relaunch, John says there was some downtime for about five minutes whilst the system was powered off at the old building and then powered on again at the new building. “I was very nervous because I built it and, although I had planned and tested it, you always have in the back of your mind – ‘what if it doesn’t work’ – and you never know with electronics, they have got this thing that when you really need them to perform, they don’t.” Fortunately all went well and John says that it was fist pumps all round as they went live on air. 

So where would he prefer to be now? Working in the power generation industry somewhere around the world or here as Principal Engineer at GBC? “To be honest this job suits me like a glove because I like all aspects of it and every day is different,” he comments. “One second I might be in the Racks room downstairs – changing equipment, looking at equipment, patching, routing, scratching my head because I don’t know what is going on – and then five minutes later I could be up on a tower on the top of the Rock, seeing the wonderful views that we have got here and changing antennas, or I could be laying cables in an outside broadcast or working on the technical operational side.”

If somebody is needed at short notice, John with his long standing experience often has to step in to help out in operational roles, sometimes performing tasks out of his technical scope. “Regardless of who is here, one of the mantras we all have at GBC is that ‘the show must go on’!”

“The public are the first people that will judge and blame if something goes wrong, so you always try and do the best you can, but if it is seamless they don’t realise all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes.” 

Are you an Award Holder based in Gibraltar or who undertook the Award with The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Gibraltar?

In the 50th anniversary year of the Award in Gibraltar, the organisation would like to create an Award Alumni with whom to celebrate the anniversary.

To register visit the link below and complete the form. All data will be kept in the strictest confidence and shall not be circulated to third parties.

https://gbz.media/DoE50th

The fundraising feat was the idea of Lee Copeland, who alongside his riding buddy Geoff Coxon have raised over £3,000 for the Royal British Legion (RBL) by riding from London to Gibraltar.

Ex-serviceman Lee joined the army in 1990, undertaking nine years’ regular service and then in 1999 joined the Territorial Army serving for twenty-one years alongside his civilian job as a telecoms engineer.  “Geoff has a son who has just left the army as a Warrant Officer and a daughter who is still serving, so when I suggested the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal he thought it was a great charity to raise money for,” Lee says. The RBL have suffered with poor funding over the last eighteen months as a direct result of the pandemic. “Not many poppies were sold last year and that directly affects the help the RBL can give our struggling brothers and sisters, those who continue to suffer as a result of their service.”

“We normally go to the Isle of Man every year for two weeks to watch the racing but obviously we couldn’t do that this year – and I still wanted a motorcycling holiday but with a difference, so that is how we came up with the thought of making it a charity fundraiser at the same time,” Lee explains.  Having considered riding a moped around the UK, they realised that they couldn’t take a moped on a motorway, but that they could take a 125cc bike. “I hadn’t been to Gibraltar for a long time and suggested this to Geoff who told me that I must be out of my mind,” Lee laughs.

The fundraising pair came up with the name Tonic Team because a tonic is something that might not be good for you, but gives a sense of health and well-being. “The same can be said of riding motorcycles… it’s also the preferred mixer with our evening refreshments!”

Working out that they could get to Gibraltar within five to eight days, Lee set up a Facebook page to see if anybody fancied joining them on the trip. “Everybody thought it was a great idea but then as time got closer to departure people started dropping out, but it suited me that it was just the two of us because on a long distance trip sometimes people want to do their own thing.”

Part of the challenge was having a small 125cc bike. “I could jump on a big motorcycle and come into Santander and probably do it in one day,” Lee comments. “Bigger machines will average 85/90 miles an hour very easily and modern machines over 1000cc have got capabilities in excess of 180 miles an hour, so to roll along at 90 miles an hour is very easy.” Lee says that on the 125cc bikes they were averaging 30 miles plus an hour, and on good days 40 miles plus an hour. “Sometimes we were riding for six or seven hours a day and then at other times it was up to eight or nine hours and we covered between 180 and 280 miles each day.” 

The Tonic Team left from Stockton-On-Tees on Friday 6th August and made their way down to Gosforth, before taking a ferry over to Portsmouth. “As we waited for the ferry a couple turned up on the same bikes as ours and said that they had been following our story and wanted to come and see us off,” Lee says. “They were envious that we were going on such a mammoth trip on our little bikes with such a small engine and wished us the best of luck.”

Arriving in Caen about 9 pm on Saturday, the Tonic Team pair started their European journey, stopping off each night and occasionally going via places of interest, including the village of Oradour-sur-Glane outside the town of Limoges which marks the worst Nazi massacre of civilians in France. “We went in and had a look at the buildings which we found very moving and sobering and a poignant stop-off point that was pertinent to our trip.” They carried on and crossed into Spain near Pamplona because Lee wanted to show Geoff the place where the famous Running of the Bulls was held. On to Burgos and then over to Salamanca, the pair headed down to Cadiz. Lee tells how it was along that part of their route that the Gibraltar Motorcycle Club (GMC) got in touch. “Twelve guys on motorbikes turned up to escort us on the last leg of our trip, and said that to their knowledge nobody had ever done this journey on a tiny bike.” 

As they emerged from their hostel, it was evident that Geoff’s bike had a puncture. “One of the guys from Gibraltar MC took us to a garage where they repaired the wheel, but when Geoff came to pay, the garage said the MC guys had already paid and they said that we were their guests now as we had  come a long way and this was just a little token from them.” 

“Considering that these were not new bikes – mine is 15 years old and Geoff’s is 13 years old – they did us proud, and although there were a couple of times that I thought they weren’t going to make it, thankfully they did.”

The GMC took the Tonic Team on a scenic route around the coast until they could see the Rock appearing in the distance. “Nigel from the MC club is part of the Borders security team and he must have briefed the Spanish who were expecting us with a warm welcome, stamping our passports and shaking our hands as we went over the frontier.”   

Lee and Geoff arrived on Friday afternoon about 2 pm and left on Monday 16th August just before the sun came up to make their return journey home. Lee says he was overwhelmed by the friendliness of the people on the Rock. “The guys from the MC took us to the Club House for a few beers and a BBQ on the Friday evening and then let us use their workshops to do a few service jobs on the bikes.”

“I would like to thank all the people that helped us along the way, all the people that made donations to the charity and to those who may make further donations – it is a great cause and the RBL really need the funding at this time because of the pandemic,” Lee says. 

There is still time to boost Lee and Geoff’s fundraising total. 

Go to ‘Just Giving: Lee Copeland’ – Lee’s Tonic Team 125cc London to Gibraltar page

Christian Santos was invested as Gibraltar’s 19th Mayor, taking over from John Gonçalves, on the 1st June. In the Chief Minister’s address on the occasion of the investiture, he said: “As Equality flags fly from some of Gibraltar’s main flagpoles in celebration of the start of Pride Month, we celebrate our own diversity by welcoming to this Civic Office our first openly gay Mayor.”

Still only 44 years of age, Christian Santos states that he always wanted to get to a point in his life where he could be considered to be the Mayor of Gibraltar. “I just didn’t expect it to come my way so soon to be honest,” he says, going on to say that he thinks people can achieve whatever they set their minds to if they have realistic aims and objectives. “I didn’t ever want to be a famous footballer because I knew that was not in my skill set, but being the Mayor of Gibraltar is something that I thought that with time I could achieve.” 

As the youngest of three brothers growing up in Gibraltar, Christian says that he was a very independent child with a lot of freedom. “My parents are part of the older generation but they are open minded and have always accepted all my life choices,” he says. “I was very academic as a boy and whilst my Dad was one hundred perfect behind me becoming a performer, my Mum did keep asking whether I wanted to go down the route of having a safe and stable career such as a lawyer or accountant, but of course she was perfectly happy when I decided on performing arts and now that I am Mayor it is her proudest moment.”

Standing on the balcony of City Hall where he was presenting Kaiane Aldorino (latterly to become Mayor in 2019) on her homecoming as Miss World, looking out on the crowds below and taking into account the diverse political and religious differences, was when Christian realised that he would love to represent the united community of Gibraltar as Mayor, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t shocked and delighted when he was asked to do so by Chief Minister Fabian Picardo. 

“I received a phone call telling me that I had to go to No. 6 urgently,” His Worship recalls. “I thought I had done something wrong but when the Chief Minister calls you just go, and I remember being totally overwhelmed when he asked me if I would like to be the next Mayor of Gibraltar.”

Because it was a role that Christian had always wanted to take on, he didn’t have to think twice about accepting the offer and said ‘yes’ immediately. “I should of course have consulted my husband Samuel, whom I married in June 2019, and who was the person who would be by my side on this new journey, and also my family, but they were all immensely supportive.”

With a varied career that has taking him from singing and performing around the world, including working with the prestigious Disney Entertainment conglomerate, it is evident that Christian Santos is a driven person and someone who relishes starting new projects. “I enjoyed my early career in the performing arts and then when, after a four year stint in Tokyo, I got to a point where I was working regularly I thought I needed to do something else – so I came back home and started Santos Productions, where I helped produce many of the major local entertainment performances including some of the Miss Gibraltar Pageants.” In 2008 Christian founded Santos Productions Academy and then GAMPA in 2015. “Becoming Mayor is another start-up for me, and although it is only early into my tenure, I am really enjoying it at this point in my life where I have got the energy that I can expend on it.”

As a performer, putting on the ceremonial robes must be a bit like donning a costume for a theatrical performance, but His Worship admits that it was only when he put the robes on for the first time that he understood the gravitas of the role he was taking on. “The traditional style of the mayoral garments and wearing the chain of office really does transform you and makes you realise that you are truly a representative of the people.” 

Christian has it very clear in his mind that the role of Mayor is bigger than he is as a person. “Everything I do is not for myself but for the office of the Mayor and for Gibraltar and I am honoured to be able to slip in to this role that will always exist beyond me as it existed before me – add my little pinch of salt and little grain of sand to it – so I am just acting as a caretaker until I am a past Mayor.”

His Worship has a clear vision of what it is that he wants to achieve during his tenure. “All my work has been focused on how proud I am of being Gibraltarian, promoting our culture, community and our people, no matter what your social economic background, gender, sexuality, religion or faith,” he comments, continuing, “and we are all very special and despite our differences we all live together in peace in a very small space of land.” It is with this in mind that Christian has created his ‘We Are One’ campaign to celebrate the diversity of the community. “The hardest job one has in life is truly being your authentic self and you don’t necessarily need to achieve something to be celebrated – because I think achievement is very relative to who you are – so what is an achievement for me may not be an achievement for someone else,” he says. 

One of the initiatives of the campaign has been the Pride of Gibraltar Awards, celebrating the unsung heroes who worked tirelessly and selflessly during the Covid Pandemic in Gibraltar, making a real difference to the community by volunteering or helping family and friends. Something else that His Worship Christian Santos wants to celebrate is social awareness of the LGBTQ+ community. “We have achieved equal rights in everything, so I now want to use my sexuality in a positive way to show people that I am living a very mainstream life and that members of the gay, transgender and LGBTQ+ community can live mainstream lives too in whatever career or job they have.”

Working with young people is what really drives Christian Santos and he is immensely proud of his many past students who have gone on to further their careers in the performing arts, whether that is in London in the West End or working elsewhere in the industry. “The one thing that also makes me extremely proud is how those students who didn’t go into the performing arts and who are now accountants or lawyers have used the transferrable skills we taught them, such as discipline, working as a team, being responsible and having high self-esteem, in other aspects of their lives,” he explains.  

Asked what His Worship wants his legacy to be as Mayor, he replies that he thinks how you are remembered is decided upon by others. “I just want to be remembered for having done this in a positive way and for making people feel special and for them to look back and say ‘Christian Santos was a really good Mayor’, and whatever their experience of it will be my legacy.”

What about the future? “Right now I am just at the beginning of a two year plan and goodness knows what is going to happen or how things are going to develop. One day I was the Principal of GAMPA and that same afternoon I was the Deputy Mayor of Gibraltar – so that is how fast life goes.” Whatever else he achieves, there is no doubt that His Worship Christian Santos will spread the message of equality and diversity throughout the Gibraltar community. 

It could be said that Francis Huart is an unsung hero for his dedication to delivering food to those in need during the coronavirus pandemic, even though his selfless work has been gratefully
received by hundreds of elderly people, to those in need and to families in isolation, but not so!

His efforts were recognised in the Chief Minister’s Statement to Parliament on the 15th January this year when Fabian Picardo said: “Today I saw a report of Francis Huart, a good friend, who is trying to be a friend to everyone he can by delivering what he can as necessary. What an example he is. His is one case of so many volunteers seeking to help as much as they can.”

Francis is a married 43 year old father to three children, two boys and a girl, who has worked at the Housing Works Agency for the past twenty-five years. On the 8th March 2020 Francis posted a Facebook message offering to assist anyone who needed help as the situation deteriorated during the pandemic. The post drew a response from Daniel Massías, Director of the Eroski supermarket, who explained that drivers were needed to help deliver goods to people over 70 years of age who lived alone and were not allowed to leave home. This also led Francis to volunteering for the Housing Works Agency, delivering items to the Nightingale Hospital at Europa, as well as delivering newspapers to readers who could not leave their homes. 

In mid-April he received a call from the Government of Gibraltar (GoG) at No. 6. “Tito Danino and Ivor López told me that more help was needed, not only for the elderly, but for families who were isolated at home.” With assistance from Elaine Hayes at the Contact Tracing Bureau who provided the addresses of the elderly and isolating families, Francis became an official Covid-19 Volunteer for the GoG and the help he offered knew no bounds as he added delivering prescriptions and paying bills to his good deeds, and it didn’t stop there. As he went around and about, Francis noticed many of those he visited were lonely and depressed and he took on extra roles such as driving them to the health centre or to the park for Golden Hour, which enabled those over 70 to exercise in a sheltered environment. As if that wasn’t enough, Francis carried out maintenance work on homes, even purchasing a number of boilers for some and he also assisted in helping residents whose homes had flooded.

In September, Francis began assisting families with young children and those with special needs, bringing them homemade food prepared by another volunteer, Rosemarie Mañasco, and restaurant food provided by Jesse Britto, owner of The Bastion Bar. “At Christmas, Daniel Massias provided me with gifts, toys, and Christmas food coupons for children in need,” Francis says. 

Going out of his way to make sure everyone that needed help got it, Francis would often finish work and then volunteer for up to eight hours a day, but one thing that kept him going throughout all this has been his strong Christian faith, going to church daily to pray for the strength, energy and power to continue. 

“I have been lucky to have the understanding and support of my wife, Victoria, as well as my sister Leana Rodrigues who made warm food for the elderly and my brother Jonathan who helped out with some of the heavy deliveries.” 

“I would also like to thank Ruben the director from the Housing Works Agency, Steven Linares Housing Works Minister and my work colleagues, especially Alan Barcio, Raymond González and Graham Southwell. I am grateful to Tito Dannio and Ivor Lopez from No. 6 for all their help, but special thanks go to Daniel Massias from Eroski.” There are also many others who Francis would like to thank and despite the fact that the situation today is very different from that of last year, donations are still coming in. Recently the local Lincoln Red Imps football team and its owners, Dylan Viagas and Christian Laguea, donated breakfasts and snacks to school children which Francis helped to deliver. 

Over the past few months Francis has cut down his volunteering but you may still see him on Sunday with the charity trolley at Eroski.  “My family, especially my three kids, are really proud of what I have been doing, but it has been hard not being with them for the past fourteen months or so,” he says. 

There is no doubt that Francis deserves a rest from his charitable work, but there is also no doubt that he would be one of the first to volunteer to assist the local community if the need arises again in the future.

There is no doubt that Georgina Cassar is an inspirational Gibraltarian who made history when she became the first, and only, Gibraltarian to compete at an Olympics.

Talking to her in July just three days before the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games is due to take place (postponed from 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic), it seems the perfect time to revisit her journey and to talk about her experience as a member of the Team GB Rhythmic Gymnastics squad in 2012. 

Turning 28 years of age in September, Georgina was 18 when she took part in the London Olympic Games. She now lives in London and works in marketing. “I came to Gibraltar at the age of two, and like many Gibraltarians I have a mixed heritage, my dad is Maltese and my mum is English, but I definitely think of myself as Gibraltarian,” she says.

Georgina’s route into rhythmic gymnastics came through ballet. “My older sister was involved in after school ballet classes and so to make it easier for my mum she enrolled me as well and I enjoyed it, but as soon as I found out about gymnastics it was ‘goodbye ballet’,” she laughs. Starting at the age of 13, late compared to other international gymnasts, Georgina credits Sally Holmes, the Head Coach of the Gibraltar Rhythmic Gymnastics Association, as being instrumental in helping her to qualify for Team GB. 

Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport performed on a floor accompanied by music that combines elements of ballet, gymnastics, dance, and apparatus manipulation, including ribbon, hoop, ball, clubs and rope. Georgina explains that every Olympic four years there is a different rotation and one piece of apparatus is omitted but all the skills have to be kept up to the same high standard. “In 2012 Team GB did two routines with five balls, three ribbons and two hoops and my favourite piece of apparatus was hoop, but I really enjoyed ribbon as well,” she says. 

In 2010 Georgina proudly represented Gibraltar at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi where she came 16th in the overall competition. However, she had already started squad testing before then because the UK had a wild card as the host nation and to top that it was the first time a UK Rhythmic Gymnastics team had been able to compete in the Olympics. When the time came for the GB squad to participate in the three day test event things went a little bit pear shaped. 

“It was quite a story and it made the headlines at the time,” Georgina explains, saying that the day after the test event the team were all over the newspapers and also appeared on BBC Breakfast on the morning news. “We had a contract with British Gymnastics that stated we needed to obtain certain scores to qualify, and we got those scores on the first day, on the second day we missed one of the scores by a very small fraction, but on the third day we got both the scores again.”

The team missed the required benchmark score of 45.223 by only 0.273 marks in the group all-around competition and British Gymnastics stated that they would not submit a nomination to the British Olympic Association for a host nation place. The GB rhythmic gymnastics team appealed and the case went to court. “We had a very good lawyer who looked at the contract, laughed and said of course you are going to the Olympics, you have qualified and achieved exactly what British Gymnastics set out for you to do.”

Georgina says that it was tough but that the squad bounced back. “I think it helped on the day because we knew that it had almost been taken away from us, so we were almost relaxed because we knew that we had put in the training and we knew what a fight we had put up to get there and on the day of the actual competition it was just about enjoying it and going out and making sure that we did a good performance, and I think that we achieved that.”

Rhythmic gymnastics has been dominated by Eastern European countries, where gymnasts are born and bred to compete, and knowing this Georgina says that they didn’t expect to win medals. “We had the host nation spot and we knew that we deserved it and were capable and that all we needed to do was to make sure that we didn’t look out of place and we put up a good fight.”

With mental health issues at the forefront for athletes at the moment, Georgina say that governing bodies should be more supportive. “We never had therapists available to us in the run up to the Olympics or even afterwards and I think it is super important that after something like an Olympic Games all athletes should be offered some sort of therapy or life coaching,” she states. 

“I left school to train specifically and then went on to compete and suddenly you are left on your own, it is a bit like ‘good luck with your life’ and then you have to try and figure out the real world and some people can’t hack it.” Luckily Georgina has had, and continues to have, a very good support system with her parents, her family and friends. “Gibraltar has always been very supportive,” she adds. 

Georgina’s time as an Olympic gymnast had plenty of high points, one of which was coming away with six best friends that are able to share their unique experiences and memories from their training days. “Training at such a high level really taught me about discipline and the meaning of hard work, and about what I have to do if I want to get somewhere.”

Looking to the future, Georgina would like to move from marketing into events management. “I know I have to put the hard work in and it is the same mindset as with sport,” she comments. “I always said that unless I am on the Olympic carpet I am not going to believe that I am at the Olympics because at any point something can happen – you could sprain your ankle walking to the gym and you would be out – so you just have to put your head down, keep focused and keep working hard.”

Saying that it may sound a bit clichéd, Georgina believes that ‘everything happens for a reason’. “It is weird how our life and our journey coincides, for instance if my parents hadn’t relocated to Gibraltar when I was two then maybe I wouldn’t have found my calling in rhythmic gymnastics and I would never have been part of the Olympic team, so a decision like that could have affected my entire life.”

Every time she comes back to Gibraltar, Georgina takes time out to go and visit the Gibraltar Rhythmic Gymnastics Association and Sally Holmes.  “I spend days there watching the girls and seeing how far they have come, but I am not actively involved in the sport any more.” 

“Although I loved gymnastics and it was definitely a part of my world for a very long time, and it will forever be a part of me, there are other things that I want to do with my life.” In her spare time Georgina loves to do yoga. “This was something I found years after the games but it has helped me tremendously both physically and mentally. I try hard to keep my flexibility up as much as possible (although it’ll never be what it once was!) and when opportunities for gymnastics/yoga/movement filming or photoshoots arise, it means I am able to accept them.”

There is no doubt that with the steely determination of an athlete, Georgina will succeed at whatever she chooses to do in the future. 

Photo Credits: Gigi Umbrasaite @ggphphotographyofficial & Noelle Laguea, 

Bryony Rovegno started playing netball at the age of eight in middle school before going on to become Gibraltar Netball’s National Team Captain and now at the age of 36 she has been chosen as one of a select group of international athletes for the ‘Voice of the Athlete’ Working Group by World Netball. Bryony credits Sarah Payas, currently Senior Squad coach, as being the person who got her involved in playing netball. “Sarah has been very instrumental in coaching and bringing on girls in netball.” 

Whilst at university in the UK, Bryony didn’t play netball but took it up again when she returned home to Gibraltar and became Captain of the National Team. It is not surprising that with a height of 5ft 8 inches Bryony not only plays netball but she also plays basketball. Both sports involve high speed, twisting and pivoting and because of this knee injuries are relatively common, and unfortunately Bryony has had five knee surgeries. “It is not easy working and trying to make a comeback from an injury,” she explains. With a heavy training schedule, there is little time for family and friends, or for celebrations such as birthdays or anniversaries. “Our training sessions are usually quite late so once you get home, especially after a hard day at work, it is difficult to switch off and focus.”

Bryony has competed in many international competitions, mainly in Netball Europe, and was fortunate enough to be part of the squad when Gibraltar was ranked in the World Rankings. When she’s not training, Bryony works for the Bassadone Automotive group in the Sales Department, exporting Toyota vehicles to humanitarian organisations such as the UN, mainly to Africa. 

So how was she selected as a ‘Voice of the Athlete’? “To be honest, I put my name forward and never thought I would be selected so I wasn’t expecting it,” she laughs. “The worst part was when I saw who had also been selected, world class athletes that I had only ever seen on television before and all of a sudden I was chosen to be one of them, it is a great honour for me and for Gibraltar as well.”

Bryony explains that they had their first meeting via Zoom recently. “It was really just to get to know each other but it was quite overwhelming to be in a call with professional athletes such as the New Zealand captain Katrina Rore and Liz Watson, the Australian captain.” The other members of the group are: Francinah Eyman – Botswana, Stacey Francis-Bayman – England, Malysha Kelly – Jamaica, Auteletoa Tanimo – Samoa, Emily Nicholl – Scotland, Aqilah Andin – Singapore and Samantha Wallace – Trinidad & Tobago

These ten members of the Voice of the Athlete Working Group, who each have at least three years of international experience, will work together throughout 2021 to determine a suitable framework for a future Athletes Commission, which will be established following recommendations by the Working Group to the World Netball Board.

With a recent heightened awareness of mental health issues amongst athletes, Bryony is pleased to be able to act as a voice for others. “There are a lot of things that happen in any association – and the athlete is the last person to be heard – so we have to come up with a plan and put contingencies in place as to why we should be heard.”

Proud to be part of Gibraltar Netball which has given her so much over the years, Bryony is passionate about helping the younger generation in any way possible. “What I want to do is inspire them – they are our future – so I will do anything that I can to help them and they are the ones that are going to benefit from this all.” 

Netball remains the most popular team sport for girls and according to Bryony for the last three years Gibraltar Netball has focused on bringing younger girls in at a grassroots level. “Sarah Payas has worked extremely hard in trying to put Gibraltar netball on the map.” The sport has become so popular that training sessions at the Tercentenary Sports Hall are often packed full of youngsters eager to play. “Even if they don’t make it onto a team we are there to inspire them and there are other things they could go on to do such as a coaching course or a scoring certificate,” she explains.    

Having been a part of other organisations, Bryony praises the structure in place at the Gibraltar Netball Association. “They are very determined to progress and the Association is always striving to find new tournaments for us to participate in, but it is not easy at times because although we are funded by the Gibraltar Government it is not for every single tournament, so we have to fund raise and that’s not easy when you are working and training as well, but we get through it and the exposure we have got over the last few years has helped us tremendously,” she states. 

Taking part in international tournaments helps Gibraltar Netball to develop and grow and heightens the profile of netball in the community. “We often get positive comments from people who have come to watch us play over the years who have seen how we have progressed and it makes you feel like you have done something worthwhile.”

Currently Bryony is training as part of the national squad, the Campions, for the Netball Europe Open Challenge taking place in Gibraltar on the 7th – 10th October. “Because of my injuries I am not one hundred percent fit so I think it is probably the last tournament I will play in.”

Looking forward, Gibraltar will host the 2022 Netball Europe U17 tournament, scheduled for the first week of March, with countries such as UAE, Malta, Switzerland and the Isle of Man participating. This will be a major boost for young players coming up through the ranks and currently performing alongside the Performance Academies whilst also getting crucial experience within the senior domestic league. 

Another major international event scheduled for February 2023 will also see the U17s in action with a total of nine countries participating in both the U17 Challenge tournament and the U17 Championship tournaments. This is an added boost for Gibraltar that will hopefully help in its bid to host the Netball World Youth Cup in 2025.

Asked what the future holds in regard to netball and whether she will go into coaching, Bryony comments that she is not sure. “Coaching is not something that I am a natural at, but when I am training I do tend to give advice and feedback because I have got a lot of experience.”

Insight congratulates Bryony on her inclusion in the “Voice of the Athlete” working group which is testament to the increased reputation gained by Gibraltar in recent years within the international netball community. 

Insight talks to Air Terminal Director Terence Lopez to find out how Gibraltar Airport has fared during the COVID-19 pandemic and what impact it has had on operational processes and procedures.

There is no doubt that the unexpected and dramatic effects of Covid-19 hit the aviation industry severely but Terence Lopez says that for Gibraltar Airport the initial response was that ‘it was just another day in the office”.

“We have previous experience from dealing with other similar situations like SARS and Mad Cow disease so we didn’t have to dig down very deep or rewrite the books,” he explains. “The airport manages risk on a daily basis – whether that is security, safety or reputational risks – and we follow the same model in assessing these which involves adding on appropriate mitigation to try and reduce these so that they are as low as possible.”

Terence states that at the beginning Covid-19 was just another ‘risk’ but that the difference was that in this case the risk was not only an unseen element which no one new how to deal with, it was at the same time serious enough to warrant extra protective measures to keep the Air Terminal functioning. This included and initiating the Business Continuity Plans that were needed to be put in place because Gibraltar Airport was a vital link and had to stay open. 

Guidelines were put in place for operational staff who had to come to work. “Part of their job involves interacting with and searching passengers and handling their items, so we had to manage that and deal with these extra challenges which were thrown into the normal daily routine of catching a flight,” Terence clarifies. “This involved providing staff with the necessary PPE and understanding when it should be applied and when masks and gloves had to be worn whilst ensuring that we remained compliant with all of the necessary regulations.”

“In the beginning it was a learning curve and we applied a phased approach to the way we operated,” he states. “At the start of the pandemic, the GHA were sending all the swab samples to laboratories that were in the UK so all the swabs that were taken locally had to be flown out.” Because swabs travel as a biohazard they have to go in the hold of the aircraft and that needs to be booked 24 hours in advance. “It is not complex but it is time consuming and all of this had to be factored in,” Terence says. “The Air Terminal, together with all the other Essential Services, formed part of the

Civil Contingencies group at national level and continue to be involved in all aspects related to being one of the entry points to Gibraltar.”

As the pandemic ensued Terence says that several long nights were spent trying to get people home to Gibraltar or back from where they came. “Flights were being cancelled and countries were closing around us and the Port of Gibraltar was one of the only ones that was open to shipping.” He goes on to state that a very strict protocol was put in place by the Gibraltar Port Authority and that the airport, together with the Director of Public Health and the Gibraltar Borders and Coastguard Agency,  spent an incredible amount of time and effort to ensure that seafarers were able to get back to their homes via Gibraltar. “On one occasion we had two charter aircraft sitting on the tarmac chartered by a cruise liner company specifically for the repatriation of over three hundred ships’ crew and this trend continued and our charter traffic for 2020 increased substantially.” An added point is that Gibraltar airport is actually a civilian air terminal which sits on a military airfield so it was very important to have a symbiotic relationship with the Ministry of Defence to keep the airport open. “We have very good relationships with our colleagues in the RAF and we try and assist them when necessary, normally with the parking of military aircraft when required.” Terence says that being able to keep the airport open was a lifeline to the outside world and one of those golden opportunities when you realise why Gibraltar needs the airport. “Countries to the north and south of Gibraltar closed, there was no shipping and there was no road link due to the fact that the border was also closed for a period of time.”

After a while the airport was handling as little as between two and four flights a week because there were still students returning from university and specialised personnel that needed to fly in. However, commercial business was at a standstill.  

“We have now got to the stage of economic recovery and thankfully, because we never closed and the Government of Gibraltar didn’t furlough anybody, it was a smooth transition to where we are now and we have worked up to what has become around thirty flights a week,” Terence clarifies. That, of course, meant that staff had to be kept competent in their training and then getting people used to eight movements a day instead of one or two and ensuring that they were all working in a safe environment. 

There are also new challenges to contend with. “There is so much documentation involved in travelling, so many extras that didn’t manifest themselves before, such as the passenger locator forms and the fact that you have to have a test before you fly.”

Terence goes on to say that they have done everything they can to make the process of flying in or out of the terminal as smooth as possible. “But this is the airport facilitating the function – what we can’t do is change the State requirements, so we are a bit stuck in that if you are flying to the UK the conditions are imposed by the UK, so you can’t board the aircraft if you haven’t complied with their conditions, and the passenger locator forms can be a bit complicated.” This unfortunately does result in some passengers becoming frustrated, especially when people turn up with not enough time before a flight thinking they will get on it when they haven’t complied with the requirements needed to fly. There has been some positive feedback on social media from passengers who have been assisted by check-in staff, but Terence wants to make it clear that what staff cannot do is to fill in the passenger locator form for anyone because it is a personal statement, and with forty-five flights a week scheduled for August they would need an army of people to help them out!

The delivery of thousands of COVID-19 vaccines to Gibraltar was another essential link in the chain for the airport. “That was handled by our colleagues in the Ministry of Defence, with the help of the RGP and the GHA,” Terence elucidates, “but we also had flights coming in here during the pandemic with PPE, so we were staying open late to provide gloves and masks for the hospital, and to transport specialised medical personnel.”

One of the good things that has come on the back of the pandemic for the Air Terminal is that its destination footprint has grown. Terence explains that before it used to be limited to Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester, Bristol, with Edinburgh due to start soon, as well as Eastern Airways expanding into Gibraltar from Birmingham and Southampton. “I am also very happy to see BA Cityflyer from London City which I think it is a great route and I hope that it establishes itself well and develops in the future.” 

Terence credits the Minister for Business and Tourism, the Hon Vijay Daryanani MP, with working hard in an effort to constantly attract more business. “The Minister is very heavily involved in trying to attract more airlines and to develop new routes.” He goes on to say that service delivery is really important because you can’t offer new destinations and routes without being able to serve them properly. “Everybody pulls in the same direction and we work very hard to keep everybody working as a unit, so even though they are made up of different organisations we can address any issues that turn up across the board.” Terence gives an example of delivering quick service at the check-in desk but having a slower service at other stages of the departure process. “It is managing those so that we can deliver the best possible service to our passengers and of course keep it safe for our staff – our biggest asset.”

There were lots of challenges in making sure that all the new prevention measures were in place, and some of those were as simple as only letting people in to the terminal who were flying. “That cuts any extra contagion that could have been out there, but it has worked and I am happy to say that I think it was one of the little success stories that came out of what was a tragic situation.” The restrictions in the terminal are now gone and people can come in, meet and greet passengers or see them off on their journey. “That is a really big step for us because we were literally pushing people out of the door and that is not what we are like, we want everybody to come in.”

From his viewpoint looking down on the terminal entrance hall, or when he has a chance to walk around on the ground floor concourse, Terence says that the he is privileged to witness the human side of family reunions, from older generations reuniting with younger family members who have been separated, to the seafarers for whom Gibraltar was the first bit of dry land they had stepped on not knowing where they were going, and one of the first bits of dry land on their way back home. 

“We are a community airport and as such we are an extension of Gibraltar and we do things here very much the same as we do in Gibraltar itself,” Terence states. “We are formal in the way we do business but we are welcoming and attempt to do our best in service delivery, but we also try to comply with everything that needs to be done, and on those occasions when we succeed it makes it all worth it.”

Throughout the whole pandemic, Gibraltar Airport was an essential gateway. “In the space of a year the terminal has gone from a panic situation where people needed to get home, to ticking over and now all of a sudden it is a gateway and we are getting all the economic development back in – it is a good place to be at the moment – and even if things turn sour again we will be ready to tackle anything that comes our way,” Terence concludes. 

Everybody needs a helping hand now and again, but its not just humans that need help, its up to us to protect and conserve our wildlife and natural resources. 

Founder of The Helping Hand Trust Dr. Eric Shaw explains how, as a child in Congleton, Cheshire he was always interested in wildlife. “Like most people in those days I did a stint in the military, eventually coming to Gibraltar, and because this place was a paradise for diving back then and because I was a diving instructor and professional diver, when I left the military, I stayed here.”

During the early 1970s when taking groups of members from the joint services on diving expeditions, Eric noticed that when spearfishing in deep waters and around wrecks, some of the fish were up to fifteen or twenty years of age. “Fish are territorial,” Eric says. “When you take fish from inshore waters, especially around Gibraltar, they don’t return.” 

Eric realised that the depletion of stocks of fish seemed inevitable and came up with a plan that was ahead of its time. “My idea was to build things under the water to create artificial reefs,” he states. “This wasn’t a new concept because I knew that back in 1888 they were building artificial reefs for the cotton plantation owners on the Mississippi River, and I was also very fortunate to know about the ships that sank during the Second World War.” It was the realisation that these large under water structures were supporting a thriving marine life that led to the formation of the first artificial reef in Europe in Gibraltar waters. 

Previous attempts to create an artificial reef from tyres and old cars were, in the long run, unsuccessful, but in 1974 Eric bought for the princely sum of £1 two redundant barges that Gibunco had been using to carry out works at the water intake within the jetty in Camp Bay.  In those days it was common practise to dispose of waste such as barges in the sea far out in the Strait, where they would not get in the way of sea traffic. After some research and enquiries, Eric convinced Gibunco to scuttle the gravel filled barges closer to the shoreline at Camp Bay, which they did with the help of many divers. However, during the winter of 1976 and 1977, storms destroyed all the divers’ efforts and after over 700 diving hours had produced little or nothing, an alternative had to be found.

Eric explains they had to re-plan and try to obtain vessels that were surplus to requirements whilst they were still floating and take the divers out of the equation. “What people didn’t understand was that we were doing this for life in the sea, not for divers to explore,” he states. “If someone wanted to get rid of a barge, I was your man.” It wasn’t all plain sailing as the vessels had to be prepared beforehand. “You have to take away all the loose stuff and get rid of it, remove the asbestos, take away the fuel and then fill the vessel with salt water to make the boat heavy.” Navy divers were brought in to cut holes in the decking to let the air out to ensure that the boat would sink quickly. 

The Camp Bay site has been added to over the past 40 years by purposefully sinking a number of smaller vessels to create the artificial reef and encourage marine diversity. There are now 11 wrecks in one area, including the 482M, a 100 foot (30 m) long Royal Navy mooring vessel, which sits upright in 56 feet (17 m) of water. “When the MOD offered me the 482 for the reef, I gratefully accepted and told them that I knew where I would like it to be sunk, but that I didn’t have the means or the people to actually sink it,” Eric says. “So with the help of Navy personnel and others who came to help, we had a fantastic sinking.” Eric says that the most memorable part of the day was the sight of hundreds of people on the beach watching the vessel go down. “When I got back down to the beach a young boy came running up to me: “Mister, mister,” he said, “the boat out there – when it drowned did everybody get off?” Eric laughs as he relates this anecdote. “Boats drown as well!” That was in 1999 and 482 was the first MOD vessel to be sunk. “After that things started to take off,” Eric comments. “Where there was just sand before, there is now an oasis of highly diverse marine life.”

There will be many people living in Gibraltar who are either too young or who won’t know about the formation of the artificial reefs. “We are still sinking boats,” Eric says. “I have got two at the present moment waiting to go under water, but we are not here to yell about it, the Helping Hand is here to help protect the sea.”

Passionate about science and research, Eric has always wanted to try and get more people into science, bringing in researchers from universities and colleges from the UK and giving them projects to do, one of which focused on seagrass meadows, something that Eric has produced scientific papers on. “We used to have very good seagrass meadows here, but we destroyed them,” he says. “It was a nursery for all things within the sea itself and every year when pelagic species like sprats and sardines come on to the continental shelf to lay their eggs, they stay in inshore waters until they are big enough to go back to open water.” Explaining that it is very important for these fish to have somewhere to hide, just as they do in wrecks, Eric says that Posidonia, a seagrass species that is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea and critical to the ecosystem, has been killed off. “We want to reintroduce Posidonia in the waters here,” he says gesticulating to the Queensway Quay marina where his office can be found. “All we need to do is control the speed of the vessels so that they don’t disturb the sea bed and cloud it up and create silt, so we are still working on that.”

The Helping Hand Trust was founded in 1994 as a response to the frequency of mutilated dead dolphins being found on the shores of Gibraltar. Eric started to collect data and found that post-mortem markings on the dolphins suggested that they had been caught in fishing nets or lines, but it wasn’t clear who was doing this. The UK media picked up on Eric’s findings and as the news spread worldwide, it was decided to start a charity for the money that was being raised by the newspaper campaigns which then allowed a vessel to be purchased to go out to sea in the Bay and surrounding areas to find out who was responsible for the dolphin mutilations. The charity made it known that they would record all activities with regard to dolphins by taking photographs of the fishing boats and their crews and expose them to the media. The good news is that the dolphins are now mostly saved, evidenced by the fact that they don’t get mutilated anymore. However, together with the assistance of Minister Dr John Cortes, protocols have now been put in place regarding dolphin tours to make sure that the dolphins can live freely and without harassment from boats. 

Dr. Shaw is also known to many television viewers as Gibraltar’s Monkey Man, having featured on programmes all around the world. “I have been working with monkeys since the 1980s,” Eric says, “but in the 1990s Gibraltar’s first primatologist Dr. John Fa managed to convince the Government that what we wanted to do was to have a nature reserve, which we do now, but instead Apes Den was created.” Eric and Dr John Fa founded Medambios Environmental Consultants, and turned Queen’s Gate (now Ape’s Den) into a tourist attraction within the MoD restricted area of the Upper Rock, employing five wardens, at least two of whom were on site seven days a week, to guide tourists and stop illegal feeding. Wanting to take people on trips to explain about the monkeys, Eric says that they had calculated it would cost about £80,000. “Although nobody had faith that we could make that money, we convinced ourselves we could, so the Government put up a box at the top of the hill and Helping Hand made £600,000 for them in the first year – all out of 50 pence pieces.” 

Back to the present day and the monkeys are currently being monitored and looked after by The Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society (GONHS) and although Eric no longer works with the monkeys, they still have students and researchers contacting them to come out here. “What people have got to understand is that no one owns these monkeys – they are wild – and as long as you are not invasive and don’t touch them, it is a good thing to have students coming here because I am interested in people on the ground sorting out Gibraltar.”

The reason that we need active minds to come in is that, according to Eric, they can ensure the right studies are being done. “I am interested in the rest of the world, but the only thing that I can remain totally focused on is Gibraltar, and for every discipline Gibraltar is such a perfect situation that it doesn’t matter what the study is, you can do it and you can show the rest of the world how it’s done in less than three months, where it will take the rest of the world to find out in three, four or even five years.”

Eric says that there is a huge network both locally and internationally of people who are experts in their own particular field, but the nice thing is that if a primatologist notices that a monkey is eating a new kind of plant, they can immediately put them in touch with people from, for example, Kew Gardens.  “We noticed that one of the female monkeys was eating a plant that in the Middle Ages women were using as a contraceptive, so we wondered if it had the same effect, if the female monkey knew to eat it and who told her,” Eric says, going on to say that there is still so much that we don’t know and that we can still learn. 

From dolphins, to monkeys and then to bees, something that started by accident when it was noted that bee swarms were exterminated when they were close to populated areas. “Now when swarms are seen we get called by Environmental Health to collect them and re-hive them.”

There is no doubt that Dr. Eric Shaw is providing a helping hand for future generations in their quest to conserve, protect and monitor our natural heritage. 

For more information, go to www.helpinghand.gi 

There was huge excitement on the 5th May when Gibraltar played its first ever official UEFA Women’s Futsal International match against Belgium. The Tercentenary Sports Hall was buzzing and packed full of raucous fans with nearly 600 spectators, including lots of young girls, watching the Gibraltar National Women’s Futsal team make history by becoming Gibraltar’s first ever Women’s National Team to take part in an official competitive International match since joining UEFA and FIFA. The young players, many of whom are still in their teens, put in a superb performance against Belgium, only being denied a win on penalties after a 3-3 draw after extra time.  Although it was initially scheduled to be played as a group qualifier with Belgium and Kazakhstan as opponents, the departure of the latter from the group meant that Gibraltar’s match against Belgium became a knock-out contest. 

Just what is futsal and what are the differences between the game and football? The main difference is that futsal is usually played indoors while football is an outdoor sport. There are 5 players on each team and the game is known to be fast and intense and has a very different set of rules than 11-a-side football.

Head of Women’s Football at the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA) Laura McGinn explains how futsal came to Gibraltar. “It all started a couple of years ago when I went on a UEFA course and met the head coach of the Northern Ireland Futsal team who asked if we would be interested in having a friendly international fixture,” she explains. “At the time we didn’t have a national futsal team but we did play a futsal cup competition, so I came back and spoke to the board and the technical director and asked them if this was something we could do.” This resulted in the setting up of a national futsal team that went on to play Northern Ireland in two friendly matches, once in Gibraltar in 2019 and the other in Northern Ireland in January 2020. “We were performing well and could see a lot of potential in the squad,” Laura states, adding that the standard is very high in women’s five-a-side futsal. 

Laura came to Gibraltar in the summer of 2018 having done Sports Science and Physiology at university and then working for three years at Worcestershire FA in England where she was Football Development Officer. “I helped them to develop women’s football, walking football and veteran’s football and then I saw this job advertised on Twitter and thought it sounded like a great opportunity, and as it was the first time someone would be heading up women’s football full-time it was very exciting, particularly as there is so much potential here.”

Still now only twenty eight years old, Laura didn’t know anyone when she came here and had to quickly learn about women’s football in Gibraltar and started by getting involved in the programmes that were already running and helping to set up new ones. “We have managed to get younger girls involved with the Fun Fridays programme which are turn-up-and-play sessions for 4-10 year olds at the Victoria Stadium.”

Gayle Langtry, Europa FC women’s player coach, and national team coach for the futsal squad, has been the manager since the futsal team started. “Gayle knows a lot of the players and had played and coached with them, so she had some ideas about who would be a good fit for the team,” Laura states, adding that in 2019 Jamie Bosio joined the coaching staff. “Jamie is assistant coach with a good background in futsal, and he has really helped to develop the team.”

Laura says that although the National Women’s Futsal team technically lost their match to Belgium, it was a still a triumph and a huge achievement. “One of the reasons that we wanted to host here in Gibraltar was so that the youngsters could come and watch some role models. Belgium is a big footballing nation in futsal so it was a really exciting game and it means that futsal is going to become more widely known in Gibraltar, and in a few years’ time there will be even more players for our national team,” Laura says. 

Inspiring the next generation of players is hugely important and some of the futsal team players went along to watch the younger girls training sessions after the tournament. “The girls had come along to the tournament with their faces painted and waving banners so some of the team went to thank them for their support and signed a few autographs, and the girls were totally in awe to be able to meet their heroines.”  

Laura says that this will spur them on and help them to see the opportunities that are available to them. “It is not just a case of always seeing men playing football because they can actually watch women play now, so the more we raise the profile, the more that parents will think it is natural to take girls to football.” 

If you have budding futsal players between 9-12 years of age, as of the 23rd May, Girls Futsal Sessions are starting at the Victoria Sports Hall (Old Sports Hall) every Sunday from 10:00 – 11:00 am. The sessions are free of charge and will be coached by players and staff from the Women’s National Futsal Team.

There is no doubt that with the expertise of Laura, Gayle and Jamie, the future of women’s futsal in Gibraltar is very bright.

www.gibraltarfa.com/women