Finals

It was a bit of a rough start to the morning being hungover and sleep deprived. Sondra and I managed to drag ourselves to breakfast and onto the bus ready for a day of finals. From the day before, we pretty much knew that we wouldn't get much game time today as the A-team girls were just awesome together so we spent the morning being water girls and helping out Agnes where we could.

The girls did really well and won their first game against Abu Dhabi B convincingly. Abu Dhabi A was the next team they played and probably the first time the shooters on our team really faced some stiff defence. Unfortunately the girls lost this semi-final game but not by much. This meant that they went into the play-off between 3rd and 4th place.

They played an awesome game with Bahrain A to come away with 3rd place. The Doha B team came 4th in the plate final and Doha Youth won the Bowl so overall it was an incredibly successful year for Qatar!!!

Elyse and Alisha came back to the rugby club to watch some of the games and catch up so we spent the afternoon together which was nice. Everyone was pretty much exhausted but the post-game adrenalin kept us going for a couple of hours so we enjoyed a few drinks together before heading back on the buses for the airport.

For some reason when I checked in they gave me an airport lounge pass so Agnes and I headed up there for a bit of quiet time before boarding. We got home about 11.30pm - exhausted but happy!!

First day of the comp

After an early start and a quick breakky, we jumped on the bus and headed to the rugby club where the tournament was being held. As usual, the facilities were great and we set up camp in our tent.

Today we were playing 6 games which started with the Bahrain Youth team. After a good warm-up and some ball drills, we headed to the courts for the first match. I sat the first half off and then went on as GK for the second half. It ended up being a pretty easy first match.

The day continued with 5 more games, each of which the team won reasonably easily placing them at the top of their pool. Between games I managed to catch up with Elyse and Alisha and also watch the Doha Youth and Doha B teams play. It was a pretty good day of netball all up although I only played one game.

In the evening, we had the netball dinner. We arrived about 1/2 an hour after it started and couldn't even get a table which was a bit shitty considering we had all paid money to be there. When they finally did find us a table, we were stuck right up the back, there was hardly any food left and we couldn't hear a thing. But we made the most of it by having a couple of drinks and then heading out to the dance floor. It was nice to spend some time getting to know the girls on the team - a great, fun bunch who are awesome at playing netball to boot!

About 10pm Elyse met up with us and Sondra, Phil, Elyse and I left the girls and headed out to JJs for a bit of dancing and a couple more drinks. It was a blast! We headed home about 3am for a quick 3 hours of sleep!!!

Heading to Bahrain

Today, Sondra, Phil and I spent the morning running around doing last minute things for netball including picking up the bibs, going to the tailors, buying a couple of last minute things and stuffing kit bags.

Sondra and I headed off to the airport about 12pm to meet up with the teams at 1pm. It was nice to see some familiar faces again and also meet some new ones. This was the first time I met most of the players on my team. Like last year, Sondra gave a speech and the airport and handed out the badges and other bits and pieces to the teams before we boarded the plane.

As you can see from the photo, the tradition of landing hats continued this year i.e. taking the pillowcase off the pillow and putting it on your head! Agnes, Mel and Sondra are featured in this photo and were all girls I played on a team with in Doha before I left.

Everyone was pretty excited to get to Bahrain and it was nice to get to there early in the afternoon so we could relax, enjoy the champagne welcome drinks and mingle with the other teams. Elyse came to the hotel to meet up with me and we caught up over dinner and a few drinks before I headed to Fiddlers to meet up with the rest of the girls.

It was a reasonably early night and we hit the hay by about 10pm in readiness for the big day tomorrow.