We set off from home at about 7:30 and were at the club well before 8:00. Apart from an enormous amount of spare and superfluous (when will women learn that blokes don’t change their undies everyday…especially when they’re away) clothing Nat and I were both wearing our silly hats.
It’s a tradition on tours to wear some form of outlandish clothing (back in 2008, when we when to Derbyshire, we all had to wear a pair of underpants over out trousers and this proved to be a real pain) and this time round we were all expected to wear some kind of outlandish head gear. Initially I’d planned on getting a pink Stetson but ended up with a ski had pinned over my straw hat; a good decision as it turned out as there were any number of the dads wearing said pink Stetson.
Some people were already there when we arrived and shortly after all were there and ready to board the coach.
Somehow, Nat managed to wangle a double seat all to himself; I’d sat in front of him thinking there were enough spare seats to allow me a double seat when Simon, one of the larger dads, plonked himself down alongside me. Nat’s best mates Jacob and Zak were sat across the isle from him and their dads Bruce and Chris were in front of them. We waved goodbye to Deb and Hannah and then we were off.
The driver took an odd route to get to the Peterborough road but it meant I got to see a few small Leicestershire villages I’d never seen before. Eventually we were on the main road and arrived at Fakenham at approximately 10:45.
We decanted to the club house where we ate some of our sandwiches and the Dad’s got a free beer courtesy of the trip beer fund.
The Fakenham people were great and the lovely Scottish chap who met us (more of him later perhaps) bemoaned the fact that the bar wasn’t open and was full of apologises for the dreadful over sight! The lads finished they’re munchies then got changed before going onto the field to warm up.
The match was only a short one as the main team had a game at home that afternoon and we had to have been and gone before this. The teams would have been fairly evenly matched if it wasn’t for the fact that their team had a superstar.
One of those natural athletes that are good at every sport and once the ball was in his hands a score was virtually inevitable. To add insult to injury he then proceeded to convert every try he scored. He successfully kicked from angles that would have challenged a professional player. It seems, the Scottish chap informed me, and he’s also very good at cricket and football too and is due to try out for one of the top Norfolk cricket clubs shortly. To make matters even worse when he got changed into his ordinary clothes he wore thick black glasses and looked more like a spekky nerd than a sportsman. Anyway, thanks to him we well and truly got our arses handed to us.
After the match the club laid on a meal for the lads (chilli and rice and enough for the dads too), opened the bar and started nominating the best players of the morning. Naturally, superstar won for their side and Sam won for ours.
After all that the boys were each given an Easter egg too and told to get ready to play softball.
We adjourned to the school located next door and were introduced to the joys of softball. The school had an actual diamond laid out and this was surrounded by safe fencing.
It would seem that softball was a major activity at this school and once more the Fakenham lads showed us just how good at it they are. Once again the superstar was a superstar and did all their pitching. Anyway, softball turned out to be 3 hours of great fun and we all had a great time. Finally it was time to leave and we boarded the bus and headed off to the bowling ally in Sherringham where the youth hostel we would be staying at was located... When we pulled into the car park all the local “cool” girls were outside smoking and they looked quite shocked when the saw our outlandish head gear.
The bowling ally was tiny having only five lanes but we spent and enjoyable hour there.
Nat and I teamed up with Jacob, Bruce, Zak and Chris. The boys were terrible and I thought their balls were going to go through the floor when they threw them into the air (I’ve just realised the double meaning inherent in that sentence). To make matters worse Nat went and actually used the frame/rack that is reserved for babies and the elderly to bowl one of his balls.
Does that boy not know the meaning of shame?
Anyway Chris won I was second Bruce was third and a veil will now be drawn over the remaining positions.
Finally, it was time to head for the youth hostel where we would be spending the night.
Like all modern hostels this was well appointed but after the coach driver pulled into the car park I was convince we were going to be marooned there because I couldn’t envisage just how he was going to turn the coach round in order to leave in the morning. Somehow he managed as it was pointing the right way next morning but quite how he managed this will always remain a mystery.
We were allocated our rooms, the boys were sharing with each other and the dads were sharing. Nat was in a room with five others and their room was apparently, according to the graffiti on the bed, haunted by a three eyed woman who was going to visit them, apparently, in the early hours. I was sharing the room next door to them with another of the dads Matt.
Once everyone was settled in we all met downstairs and headed off into town to pick up the fish and chips that had been ordered for us earlier that day. Well I can’t say that the portions were huge but both the fish and the chips were very pleasant and a credit to “Dave’s Fish and Chips”.
After we’d finished we walked down to the front with the intention of playing a game of football on the beach. Oh Dear, What a Pity, Never mind… the Tide was in
so we all went to the pub instead.
The Two Lifeboats was a higgledy-piggledy kind of place and the loo was strangely close to the kitchen but that said it was a rather nice “little” and obviously a favourite with the locals as everyone there seemed to know everyone else.
I got the distinct impression that many of the customers had been using it for years. When Connor somehow managed to get a rock dropped on his head they were kind enough to provide us with ice to put on the bump. We stayed for a couple of hours by which time the lads had returned to the hostel and I walked back there with Bruce and Chris.
When we got back I liberated the Stella’s I’d brought and distributed them amongst those watching match of the day in the TV room. All the lads were upstairs by now and running round making enough noise to wake the dead and very possibly the 3 Eyed Lady!!!
One of the dad’s Chris, not Zak’s dad Chris, fell asleep and ended up with a box on his head. With the beers drunk eventually everyone made their way to bed. I’m not sure if Matt was already there when I went up but I put in my headphones and went, virtually immediately, to sleep. It had been a long and enjoyable day.
BELOW IS A SLIDE SHOW OF ALL TODAYS PICTURES
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