Update 3 - Holland

Greetings from the Netherlands..

Our tour is moving at a fast pace. We have left England and found ourselves in the middle of some excellent Dutch hospitality.

Since the last update we have experienced the sporting magic of a super league grand final at Old Trafford stadium.  80,000 plus made Leeds and St Helen supporters gave our tour an unforgettable evening as Leeds overwhelmed St Helens 32-16. What a great atmosphere!

Leaving Manchester we travelled enroute to Hull through the ancient city of York. Historically and culturally strong the city has been the northern capital for centuries.

Overnight was entertaining on the P& O liner across the channel to Rotterdam.  Excellent food and entertainment, mostly self developed delivered us into Holland and a day site seeing through Amsterdam.  Anne Frank’s House, cruising the canals, Madame Tussod’s, the infamous red light district to name a few of the highlights as the weather began to sink into the colder temperatures.

At night we played Leusden and our hosts hospitality and sportsmanship was a grand as their magnificent club facilities. Wins to both teams and a cameo performance out of goals from Ainslie were the highlights.  Excellent club house socializing there after.

On Tuesday we travelled north to the tourism strong Volendam experiencing traditional Dutch village life – cheese and clogs.  Souvenir hunting, snap shots and meals and we headed to Baarn for our next game.  Once again our hosts treated the tour to an excellent evening of sport, culture and entertainment.  These great days and nights are beginning to catch us and with one – two injuries our men failed to hold off a strong team while our ladies had another strong win.

Today we head to WWII famous Arnhem.

Update 2 - England

Greetings to all back home from the Wanderers on tour.

Our tour is well and truly underway with all having a great time.  Special hello back to Grafton Hospital: the girls are missing you heaps!

Over the last two days we have visited Horsham Hockey Club in Sussex and Newent Hockey Club in Cheltenham.  In the games we have had two close defeats in the men’s going down 1-0 and 2-1 in entertaining and spirited games played at a high level of ability and followed by cleansing ales afterwards. Matt and Kelly have been stand out players and Bernie is killing them!

Our ladies team has been up against superior quality teams but their attitude and positive energy towards the game and each other has been the highlight of the trip.  Well done ladies, the whole team has been sensational!

Outside the games we have toured Windsor experiencing the majestic Windsor Castle and the quaint village.  Today we tour the Cotswold district renowned for its lovely countryside and super villages.  Lunch at the Hollow Bottom pub sounds great and will report next time on the quality of the ale and meals.

Update 1 from London

Day1

After meeting up in Hong Kong we set off for London. The weather was wonderful- the hottest October day ever recorded!
Arriving at 6am in the morning we embarked on a tour of London seeing all the sights- Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus. After lunch we set off for a local derby soccer match -Crystal Palace and West Ham - what an experience, very passionate supporters.
Most of us were asleep by 10pm - ready for our first matches tomorrow!

Day2
 We were all refreshed and ready for a big day!
We set off early for the Tower of London.
We then left  for our first games of the tour against Tulse Hill and Dulwich HC it was again a hot day and we all felt it.
The Ladies lost 3-0 and the Men lost 3-2! This was great considering we had never played together before!
After the match many beers were consumed with the opposition as we had to replace the fluids we had lost!

More updates soon!