During October half term, senior netball players were lucky enough to travel to Barbados for an unforgettable tour.
For our first morning, we had a training session accompanied by local professional coaches. This session focused on straight line drills in preparation for our first fixture against a local team, Jet Stars. It was a great first game for us as a fairly new team who had rarely competed together, and we managed to come out with a convincing win. After a successful match, we were treated to dinner at Oistins, a lively seafood restaurant in the town centre, and where we were lucky enough to catch the local DJ! The following day, we set off on an all-day Jeep Safari and explored the most picturesque areas of Barbados on (extremely) off-road routes. It was an amazing way to see the island – ranging from Rihanna’s house to some picturesque beaches, to the breathtaking viewpoint at Hackleton’s Cliff.
Our third day consisted of another training session which was followed by lunch at a beautiful local beach restaurant, Zaccios. Refreshed, we headed off to our second game against Springer School. Word on the island said they would be the toughest opposition we would face! Sure enough, the majority of the game was close in score, but we managed to pull away at the end, winning by just three goals. On Tuesday morning, we had another training session. In the afternoon, we played against the Lodge School; we were eager to win, and we came away victorious.
On Wednesday we enjoyed water sports in the morning. We then had our last match of the tour at 2:30pm, and the heat really got the better of us. We found it incredibly hard to maintain the intensity and stay positive, however, we managed to win (just), which meant we had won all of our games on tour.
On our last full day on the island, we celebrated with a Catamaran cruise. We were able to swim with turtles and snorkel over coral reefs and shipwrecks; a new experience for many of us. The day also consisted of infinite jumps and flips off the boat, alongside an all-singing all-dancing crew who got us all on our feet, including our coaches. This was hands down everyone’s favourite day!
Thank you for such an amazing trip. We will remember it forever.
Elysia Kleine Deters and Yulia Travina
