22nd - Wimbledon

We awoke on Monday and stumbled half asleep into the dining hall for our last meal at the school. Another fry up with a cereal of our choice set us up for the day. However, there was one more thing I had to do before we left. In our time there, most of us had become friends with Liam. Liam was a Welshman who played U16 rugby for Cardiff Blues and used to be at the Charlton Athletic soccer academy. Needless to say he had made a fool of me in our game of touch two days previously with steps almost impossible to defend against. Liam had been slagging off Australians for most of the time we were there so I felt it was necessary to sneak into his dorm when he was in class and pin up a spare Australia flag on his bed.

Whether its still there I don’t know but it was amazing how friendships were forged so quickly and it was a shame we may never see these people again.

We left to go to our new accommodation in Egham, Surrey and following the 2 hour bus journey came across a huge 18th century mansion which was where we were staying for the night. We got up to our rooms excited, but were immediately revolted by the smell of the rooms. Never mind it was only one night.

We quickly got back on the bus and headed to Wimbledon. To go on the first day was going to be very exciting but the huge queue for tickets slowed enthusiasm as most of the parents left early. After 3 hours of queuing we were through at 5 o’clock to the outside courts and, although we struggled to find seats due to how busy it was, we were thrilled to be at the best tennis tournament in the world.

Tommy Haas, Fernando Verdasco amongst others were all big names that we saw and lots of the boys made trips to the shop to commemorate their visit.

At 9 o’clock it was time to head home, easier said than done as none of us were familiar with the train services in London. After three trains and lots of walking we got back to our mansion at 11:30 and were all understandably knackered and crashed almost immediately.

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