Manx Radio has received the sad news former Island swimmer, footballer and cricketer, Sid Roskams, passed away on Saturday after a short and sudden illness.

After moving to the Island from Portsmouth, Sid married a Manx girl and immersed himself in the sporting community.

As a Goal Keeper for Dowty Engineering, Corinthians, Peel and finally the great Pulrose United team of the early 1970s, he won every medal possible in Manx Football at that time. His Isle of Man first team goalkeeping career saw a spectacular comeback at the age of 42 after an unparalleled season in the Pulrose nets – including winning the international 5 a side tournament at the Palace Lido, one of his proudest nights in sport. Sid also made Manx Football history by becoming the first non-Peel born player ever to play for the team.

In the Summer months he turned his attention to his other great sporting passion, Cricket, where he kept wicket for his beloved Cronkbourne and the Isle of Man 1st XI. His cricket playing career spanned 50 years, again winning every trophy in the sport, and even another individual trophy in 2002 in the Cronkbourne Junior Forresters team when he was in his seventies – he continued to support Manx cricket serving for many years as a regular umpire in the Manx leagues.

Having been Island backstroke champion in the 1950’s he returned to the swimming pool in the last three years taking swimming for the disabled classes at the NSC and working with the Manx Foundation for the Physically Disabled.

He also helped with badminton coaching after his daughters took up the sport in the 1970s, and he began a successful league career in that sport too, contributing to many Vikings teams of that era.

In the opinion of his daughters ‘he was a giant of local sport, who made many friends and admirers serving and representing the Isle of Man’.


Picture: Taken from 'The Ball Keeps Rolling...... One Hundred Years of the Isle of Man Football Association 1890-1900' by Eric Clague and Colin Moore.