Commonwealth Games aspirations for island with population of less than 40

A dwindling population of less than three dozen currently sates its sporting appetite with occasional games of tennis.

Two hundred and thirty four years after a band of mutineers from the HMS Bounty washed up on Pitcairn Island, the remaining inhabitants of one of the world’s most isolated settlements have not given up hope of grasping their “Eddie the Eagle” moment on the international stage.

A dwindling population of less than three dozen currently sates its sporting appetite with occasional games of tennis and a sputtering Starlink feed that beams rugby from New Zealand, 3,300 miles to the west.

Shorn of enough active adults to raise two teams, the island’s cricket pitch lies fallow.

Acutely aware of the need to ensure that Pitcairn’s ready-made tale of high seas drama can endure in