On the 12th of July '08, nine of the Harlequin ladies youth academy travelled to Thames Young Mariners in Ham.

We all arrived on time ... other than Rosie who didn't realize it was the weekend, and we were introduced to Ben, our leader for the day.

We were harnessed up, trying not to laugh at Ben, and then led to a rather challenging obstacle course which happened to be above water! Boney was straight up the ladder and walking across the rope bridge whilst the rest of us fought to go last. Alex was definitely the most pathetic on the course, letting out squeals every now and then and wobbling about. Once we'd all had a go on the zip-wire, we had a short break before being taken to the raft equipment.

Ben showed us how to make a raft and we set to work with Boney once again taking the lead. Finally both rafts were ready for the water but unfortunately our raft had two extra lumps to put up with - Nick and Kitten. We all had an awesome time, and somehow everyone managed to fall in. As we were already wet, Ben let us go in the two man kayak, we took it in turns to be pushed down the vertical slide and soon worked out that sitting in the front of the kayak isn't a very clever thing to do especially when you capsize or get dunked under water!

After washing the bird droppings off the BBQ, Boney and Nick cooked for us. We set up our tents, practiced our spin passing and taught the adults how to play spoons. The following morning, we ate bacon rolls and raved to Kitten's gangster tunes. Then at 1 we met with the Harlequin Ladies at Marble Hill Park, and shortly after, the youth academy thrashed the oldies in a game of rounders. The immature group of seniors decided to get their faces painted, whilst the fogey's went for tea and scones!

I would like to thank all of the seniors, Kitten and our wonderful coaches Nick and Alex for organizing the tour, we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Cathy

Quins Youth academy

Related Links:
HLFC Youth Academy