Tour Reports

Hoensbroek, Holland - December 2006

Starting out from Central Milton Keynes at 12:00 noon on Wednesday 27th December 2006, all clothed in our Bright Yellow Hooded Sweatshirts, we said our good bye to some very happy parents, who I am sure we could hear cheering as we made our way down to the platform to catch the train to Euston.

The bright yellow tops made us all stand out in the crowd as we made our way by underground from Euston to Waterloo. Then by Eurostar to Brussels, Midi and onward by coach to Hoensbroek, Holland. Checked in to the Hotel a quick bite to eat and off to bed as we had an early start the next morning.

All the players were distributed to one of five venues for the Individual events. Some good results followed with not only the England players performing but a lot of the County players as well. It was a long day and we all got back to the Hotel at about 11:00 p.m.

On day two it was another early start but only two venues now, one for Semi-Finals and Finals and the other for the Plate Events. We had Rhys Walker in the Semi-Final of the Under 13 Boys Singles and Colm Smith & Dominic Brown in the Semi-Final of the Under 19 Boys Doubles. The rest of the players were in the Plate Doubles events.

Colm Smith & Dominic Brown sadly lost there Semi-Final in two games, but Rhys won his Semi-Final in three games and went through to the final. Meanwhile over at the Plate Events, Lauren Bromley & Laura Mercer won the Under 15 Girls Doubles then we all all headed over to the other venue to watch Rhys win the final of the Under 13 Boys Singles, a fantastic achievement!

Back at the hotel that evening, a team meeting was called to rally the troops for the following day’s Team Events. Sara with a face like she had been chewing wasps, throwing some toys out of her pram, asked for all team members to step up to the mark and perform to the best of there ability for their Team. It worked!

The next day the Under 13 Team played fantastically well, with Sophie Sankey, Rhys Walker, Darren Adamson and Mina Clark winning the Under 13 Team Event, beating National players from Holland, Germany, Austria and Spain. The Under 15 team played extremely well with most of the players playing out of their age groups some by as much as 3 years. The Under 17 team having lost the opening match to the Finland National side 4 - 1, beat the Austrian National Team 3 - 2 in the second match and only just lost out by two points to the Polish National side in an enthralling contest which had most of people in the hall rooting for England, this was a fantastic achievement since the three lads are only County players and the two girls are England players but under Under 15. The Under 19 lads competed well with their German partners.

The following morning we had a few hours to relax and see the sites in Valkenburg, before returning home on Sunday the 31st December just in time for most people to go off to their New Year’s Eve parties. The parents collecting there over enthusiastic children were no longer cheering!

A fantastic trip for all involved, not only the kids, many of whom would not be able to compete in this International tournament without Smashing Tours organising it. Also for the parents who got a chance to go along and watch the sons and daughters compete at this level and we hope to see you all again next time

Sara Sankey & David Blyth
Smashing Tours