Dubrovnik Dub Bowl, Day 1

Sunday 10^th July 2022

I quite like to be up early as it gives you a chance to maximise the time in your day but I must admit when the alarm went off this morning at 2am I did wonder what was going on!

Isla and I left home just before 3am to meet Taylor Daniel and his dad, Lex, at Gatwick airport ready for our 5:55am flight to Dubrovnik for the U11 Dubrovnik Dub Bowl. The event has been running for many years and we were recommended it by one of the players who played in it last year so both Isla and Taylor have been looking forward to it for some time.

After arriving at Dubrovnik airport at 10am we got through customs and collected our bags fairly swiftly and then met our driver who took us to our apartments for the week which are just around the corner from the main tournament site. Everyone was feeling a little tired by this stage so we decided to get some sleep and then meet back up at the site for registration at 3:30pm.

Due to another tournament going on we were only able to get a practice court at 6pm today so we decided to have a very early dinner at 4pm. By the time we ate everyone was pretty hungry and, as we’d been up since 2am, it actually didn’t feel that early to have dinner!

We practiced from 6-7:30pm and, despite both of the players being quite tired from a long day of travel, they both worked very hard and settled in really well to playing on the clay.

Once we had finished training both Isla and Taylor cooled down and stretched out and then we all headed back to our apartments for a well-deserved early night.

Around 9:30pm the draw and order of play came out:

Schedule for tomorrow:

Taylor Daniel (GBR) vs Luka Juric (CRO) – 4th match on after 8am

Noemi Nogradi (HUN) vs Isla Smith (GBR) – 7th match on after 8am