Saturday 17th August 2013
After a very long day of travel yesterday, which included a high of getting upgraded on the British Airways flight from Gatwick to Barbados to the low of sleeping on a tiled floor at Barbados airport waiting for the delayed Liat flight, Alex Hagon and I eventually got to St Vincent at just before midnight. Alex is on his own on this trip but we’ll be meeting up with Mia Smith and Stefan Cooper so hopefully they’ll be a lot of support for the Brits!
The plan for today was to have a relaxing start to get over the flight but both of us were up early due to the jet lag so we met for breakfast at 8am. This week we’re staying at the Beachcombers Hotel which is located right on the beach and has a great view of Young Island from the restaurant and pool area – not a bad sight while having breakfast.
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The view of Young Island from the restaurant in our hotel
Once we had finished we decided to have a walk to the tennis club rather than pay the EC$15 taxi fare! The walk took us out of the back of the hotel and along the beach to a boardwalk which ran along to the main road. It was then just a short 7-8 minute walk from there to the tennis club. When we arrived we said hi to Anthony and Colleen who were the same referees when we were last in the Caribbean in April and then booked some practice courts for later this afternoon.
After that we left the club and had a quick look around the local shops before deciding to take one of the Island busses to the main supermarket near the airport. We stocked up on water, fruit and snacks and then headed back to the hotel to get some lunch and watch the start of the Premier League season!
This afternoon we got to the club at 2pm and then went through a good 30 minute warm up before our scheduled practice time of 2.30pm. By the time we stepped on the court my shirt was already soaked due to the high humidity here but it didn’t stop me from taking the opening game of “Bounce” against Alex! Bounce (or what we call Bounce!) is a game that we play at the start of each session and it basically involves the player hitting the ball down into the ground before it goes over the net (a bit like a table tennis serve). It’s just played in the service boxes and is great for footwork and establishing a high intensity at the start of the session. After that we spent the next hour and a half getting used to the heat, humidity and court surface by drilling from the back of the court and playing lots of points. There was a brief downpour of very warm rain towards the end of the session but after a quick break we got back on court to work on Alex’s serve for the last 30 minutes of the session.
Once we were finished on court we booked practice for tomorrow and then headed back to the hotel. While Alex stretched out I headed out for a 6 mile run to keep up with my training programme for my 12th Great North Run half marathon in Newcastle on the 15th September. It seems that every road out here goes uphill and some of the hills are massive! On the way back the heavens opened and a big storm came down but I really didn’t mind as by that stage I needed to cool off!
This year (like the last two years) I am running the Great North Run for Make-A-Wish Foundation which is an amazing charity that grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses. The charity does not receive any government support and needs to raise at least £7 million this year so if anyone reading this Blog is able to donate absolutely anything please do so via my JustGiving page:
www.justgiving.com/robsGNR2013
When I got back Stefan Cooper had arrived from St. Lucia so after a quick shower and change we all headed out along the beach to ‘High Tide’ for dinner. The restaurant at our hotel was closed this evening due to a big function with the President of Taiwan but it was also nice to check out some different restaurants early in the week.
More training tomorrow before main draw sign-in in the evening and then game time on Monday – Bring It On!!
