Playing in two such beautiful countries in the West Indies was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have ever had. We left home early on Saturday morning 4th April, with a few mixed feelings in the car journey on the way up as to whether this was going to be a successful tour for me or not. We arrived at the airport and everybody was very excited but of course not looking forward to the 9-hour flight we had ahead of us, especially when it was one of my team mates first ever flight. We landed in Barbados to our surprise in the sun! After one night in Barbados we flew onto Trinidad, this time expecting sun and we weren’t disappointed. The first day we had training, which gave everybody a chance to get used to the surroundings and get over their jet lag. Our training session was at Winky’s ground! Winky was a 73-year-old grounds man, who was a very nice chap, and even decided he wanted to bowl to our opening batsmen, who managed to hit him on the leg. Everybody was so surprised about the heat, and we were all sweating after the first 10 minutes. The next morning was our first game against North-east Trinidad and as you can imagine everybody was very excited. This game for me was a rest day as each player had to miss 2 games during the tour. We batted first and got a score of 253 in 45 overs, and they did not chase the runs down, so we won this game comfortably. Wednesday 8th arrived and it was time for my first game and this was against South Trinidad. In this match we bowled first and got them out for 103, I got 3 wickets. We then went out to bat and I was opening. My opener and I got an opening partnership of 60-0 until I played a ghastly sweep and got caught at short mid-wicket for 26. We then managed to somehow lose 9 wickets for 27 runs and got bowled out, much to our coach’s fury for 87. In this game I was awarded with the man of the match award, which was given at the end of every game we played in Trinidad. On Thursday we had a rest day, and travelled to a very well known beach in West Indies called Maracas Bay. Annoyingly, when I got back to the hotel I realised I had got burnt quite badly, although not as badly as my captain. At Maracas beach we tucked into a shark and bait cutter, which is a sandwich. This was actually one of the tastiest things I ate whilst I was in the Caribbean. We visited the shopping Mall on the way home and enjoyed spending some pocket money. In the Mall we talked ourselves into buying hair dye with our pocket money, but then found out shortly after that our coach was having none of it, oh dear! Friday morning, match number 3 against East Trinidad. We won this game, and this was probably the best match of my tour, as I got 4 wickets and scored 32 not out. Saturday we had a really good and exciting opportunity, we were opening up a university ground, and playing a day nighter under lights, this was spectacular! We were even giving coloured tops and pads, success! We lost this game, we got 120 in 30 overs and I got run out on about 13. They won with 3 overs to spare and I got 2 wickets. That was Trinidad finished and the final standing was 2 to us and 2 to Trinidad. The organisation of the cricket in Trinidad and Tobago was a lot better than that of Barbados because we had a presentation at the end of each match and they also looked after us a lot better, although the players in Barbados were a lot friendlier.

Sunday morning we flew back to Barbados, and returned to Rostrevor Apartments, which was an excellent hotel right on the beach. We spent the afternoon swimming and trying not to get burnt again, unluckily for me I got burnt again! My parents and brothers had now arrived which was good and I looked forward to them watching my match the next day, which unfortunately was a bit of a disaster, as I got 9, and then got hit on my toe, and got given out LBW, then I only managed to bowl 3 overs before walking off the pitch in absolute agony. We played three games in Barbados and in all three of them we played against Barbados U16, and some of them had played against last year’s South and West side.

The next day, my toe still hurt but I wanted to play as I was keen to do well. The ground we played at was a lovely ground, and had great
facilities. We lost this game but I scored 21 and got 3 wickets, which somehow relieved the pain of my toe!

Wednesday morning had arrived and we were in for a real treat. We were given a choice whether to go to the Boatyard, which was jumping off trampolines into the sea and going on swing ropes into the sea, or going swimming with turtles. I decided thinking it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to the Boatyard………. No I went swimming with turtles! This was an absolutely fascinating experience and again sitting on the boat I managed to get burnt. Getting burnt on the shoulders wasn’t fun when you had to bowl, as you can imagine. Nevertheless I loved the day, and will remember it forever.

Luckily for us the next day we were playing in the Barbados Test ground – The Kensington Oval, unluckily for me it was my second rest day, but saying that my shoulders weren’t complaining, so I was carrying the water bottles yet again. Everybody was so excited and we even had our name on the electronic scoreboard and sat in the player’s changing rooms. One of my team mates found some socks in the bin, and was sure they were Kevin Pietersen’s, as they had only just finished playing in the West Indies.

Again we lost but it was more about the experience of being there. On the last day we played a fun game amongst ourselves 8 versus 8, as the original team we were going to play, had to go to school. This was a great way of getting our confidence back by smashing each other out the park. We all bowled differently to our normal bowling, and I even tried a bit of pace…….for 2 balls! I managed to score 81 from 30 balls, not bad! Our team won, our first win in Barbados.

We flew home the next day and I reflected on how my tour went, overall I took 12 wickets, which meant I was the leading wicket taker. This was a very enjoyable tour, and I learnt a lot from it, the lads were great, both Trinidad and Barbados were beautiful but very different islands, as Trinidad was more industrial and was not somewhere you would go on holiday, whereas the beautiful Barbados was more of a holiday resort.

I would once again like to thank all of the sponsors and supporters that have made this tour possible for me, I am very grateful to you all for helping to give me this fantastic opportunity.