Team Diary Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th March 2009
The England Rifle Team tour to South Africa 2009 started with the usual congregation in the English XX at Bisley. Our faithful baggage master, Stephen, did the stressing for all of us while meticulously labelling bags and generally ensuring that shoes weren’t taking up team kit space! Being instructed to act like sheep rather than think for ourselves, baggage was checked in and rifles were examined with Matty asking the customs officers to “excuse his pants” that were padding out his rifle box.
Having carefully checked the contents of her hand baggage on Tuesday; Holly found an empty case and was rather relieved to remove it knowing the stress and problems that would have occurred had it been in the bag going through LHR security. Going through the X-ray machine, Holly
wondered why they were putting her bag through for the fourth time. Oh, she said, that will be my telescope. “No” came the reply, “is there anything else you might have in your bag?” “I hope you haven’t got any empty cases in there” said James who was behind her in the queue. “It doesn’t look empty” suggested the security officer. After examination five live rounds were discovered that should have been in her hold baggage and the security guard marched Holly off as she explained that she “was part of a shooting team”. The security officer duly called SO19 (the Heathrow Police unit) who confirmed that she was legally holding the ammunition and understood her mistake. After the exchange of brochures, team pins and anecdotes, Holly was allowed out in time to catch the flight with a gentle warning to be more careful – suitable photos having been taken.
With Captain Rylands and Big Lothian (Captain Virgin) working their charms, upgrades were secured for the management and the drivers, while Little Lothian, having to give up his upgrade for the cause was brought some champagne from the front! With a fair few upgrades, this gave the rest of us the chance to spread out a bit and get a bit more rest while making the most of the seat to seat messaging system- Stu Y sending Andrew a message asking ‘what colour knickers he had on’- the upgrade didn’t seem to stand in the way of team communication! The flight went pretty smoothly although the weather in Jo-burg left rather a lot to be desired. The paperwork for the rifles arrived after a short wait and following more brochure and pin badge exchanges, we were swiftly through customs. The extremely helpful staff at Avis enabled an efficient collection of our Mercedes (some of the team thought Mercedes McLaren) vans and we were on our way to Nottingham Rd.
God knows how many speeding tickets we racked up over the drive, only time will tell, but Nick Tremlett swore that at one point he saw all 4 in perfect convoy in front of him get flashed yet still failed to do anything about it to make a perfect 5. The team average speed for the trip is alleged to have been approximately 120 km/h.
We stopped for an ‘I’m starving’ meal at about 10am and the team heavily tucked into the burgers, only for us to stop a couple of hours later for a full steak house lunch – welcome to South Africa! Dave Rose opted for a full mixed grill because the steak was only 275 grams.
We arrived to a misty Rawdon’s hotel (photos below), after passing through some beautiful scenery. The hotel itself was stunning, with vast rooms, beautiful views over the lake and a big-old fashioned bar. The roaring log fires and, best of all, £1.20 pints proved to be a magnet and a team bonding session ensued. The planned 7pm meet for drinks had started rather earlier than anticipated…
