A Pupil’s Memories of 2013 Rugby Tour

On Thursday the 25^th of October at 4:00 the GMS rugby team left for the Cheltenham Race Course Hotel where it was staying for the 2013 Rugby Tour.

It was a great journey, made more memorable by the sight of a middle aged man in his birthday suit standing in a window of a 2-story block of flats!

The hotel in Cheltenham was modest but comfortable. On arrival, each dorm pair joined with another pair because the rooms slept four. In my dorm, I had George (the sensible one), Jack (the lazy one)and Alfie (the absolute clown). When we were given the keys to our dorm everybody raced ahead trying to be the first ones in the room. However, the keys we were given did not work: we ended up waiting a, painstakingly, long five minutes before finally getting in.

After we had settled down in our rooms and watched a bit of TV, we unpacked our hair products and fought over which was the best bed.

Finally, we left to go bowling. A great night it was with the lads competing against Mr Goodright and Mr Hudson. However, Miss Murray turned out to be the best!

We left the bowling around two and half hours later, but we were held up by Jamie forgetting his wallet! Several minutes later, we left again, but once again, we were held up by Jamie, who had forgotten his phone. Finally, Jamie had all his belongings and we set off ‘home’!

Before heading for bed, after a fun filled but tiring evening, we heard Jamie exclaim he had left the bowling alley wearing bowling shoes instead of his own – yes that’s right, Jamie Kerley had forgotten his shoes! And he is the one who plays hooker for the team!

There followed a pleasant night listening to our fellow room neighbours getting told off every 10 minutes!

The following morning, we woke, dressed and ate a nice cooked breakfast, which was followed by a good hard core training session.

Every single lad in our rugby team had bought an expensive morphsuit as a joke. We saved wearing our morphies until the Bath vs Gloucester game but the surprise was ruined when “Sir” told us to leave it for another day. We had a great time in Bath, shopping and eating in Nandos, where some quality girls (our age) sat near us!

We had to run, as we were late, to the stadium, where we were pleasantly surprised by being offered the chance to interview to two Bath rugby players! It was fun to do!

After watching the players warm up, the boys and I were called up to the pitch: we were surprised to find that we were set to be on national television (BT Sport)! We held the Bath flags up as the players marched under them: the occasion was memorable because Jack fell and it was caught on TV!

Sadly, I can’t remember the final score because I was too amused by the men sitting behind, who drank  a vast amount of beer and shouted fun chants like “eeeh orrr!” It was a great night out.

That night, I was woken up at 5:00am by a small soul, called Ben, asking for his hair to be done by Jack and me, because we were renowned as hairstylists! We refused,  telling him to go away and get a life! However, this didn’t work: every half an hour he came back begging, so, eventually, we gave in!

After breakfast, we had our first room inspection; our room was voted the best. After every room had been checked, we all changed. First, we returned to the bowling alley to get Jamie’s shoes, next, we ate a Subway, finally, we prepared ourselves to play Longlevans.

When the game was over our morale was low: we lost our first game.

Luckily, we all cheered up once we were dressed in our morphsuits and played laser quest: it took the game off our minds! Mr Goodright and Freddie starting hunting Ben R and me down! The whole game was followed by a high pitched, welsh fly-half!

Later, in our normal clothes we enjoyed a big pizza at Pizza Hut!

The next day, we were sad to leave the hotel but excited about the tournament. We chanted the annoying slogan “lads on tour, lads on tour, lads on tour” until it became too much for some!

The tournament did not start well: we lost the first and second games we played. Although this dampened our spirits, we managed to play the best game of rugby ever in the third round.

I think that the Year 8 Great Marlow School Rugby Tour 2013 was brilliant! The rest of the team and I thank Mr Hudson, Miss Murray and Mr Goodright for making it an amazing experience!