Cottage Farm Ladies  - sponsored by

    Cottage Farm Ladies, comprising of Kate Harker, Kayleigh Hewitt, Susan Blabey, Leanne Crawford, Jo Fowler, Natalie Davis, Zoe Pugh, Amy Waller spent the weekend of the 14th and 15th August 2004 in Torquay. Originally, a friendly was planned but the lack of numbers prevented this. However the weekend was a very good team building event bringing together some of the newer players, some of the younger players and some of the more established players, oh and the coaches too!

    The squad, led by manager Roger "Hot Legs" White and coach Kevin Dyer, gathered at 5.00 am in Dosthill, where they proceeded to take the mickey out of the coach who was wearing shorts. They weren't laughing when we got to Torquay which was bathed in glorious sunshine and was very warm, and they were all cooking!

After tucking into a hearty breakfast on the seafront near the Torquay theatre, the group explored the local shops, in fact Kate Harker and Natalie Davis explored every single shop, I don't think they missed one! By lunchtime the group were in need of some competition, so found their way to the local bowling alley where a good time was had by all. Some of the younger members entertained us with their efforts even if they didn't work the scoreboard too hard, isn't that right Kayleigh, Susan and Kate!!! In fact, Kate produced the ball of the day when she managed to put her ball down the adjacent lane, in the gutter, just as it was the disbelieving coach's go, and this straight after Nat told her to keep it in her own lane, she was joking she thought!!

After all the excitement, the group headed off to their hotel for a rest and brush up. After settling in, they decided to hit the hotel pool. Strangely, everyone else seemed to get out once we arrived, can't think why. An impromptu game of water polo followed, refereed very badly by the land-lubber Natalie Davis. Everyone else was in the water, if not all voluntarily!  A very good and competitive game lasting some considerable time took place, a good workout as a few people were complaining of aching muscles afterwards, weren't they Roger!!

The evening was spent enjoying a very nice meal in a local Steak House in a very busy Torquay town centre.

The following morning, most of the group enjoyed another hearty breakfast although some would not wake up no matter how hard we tried, isn't that right, Nat!! Another sunny day followed. We headed off over to neighbouring Paignton and after a wander around the shops, a football mysteriously appeared so the group had a game on the green behind the beach followed by a well-deserved ice-cream and drink. I've never seen anybody play football or even walk around when they appear to be asleep, all day, but I have now, isn't that right Susan!! They can't take the pace these young ones!!

With stomach's rumbling, we found a place to get some food and watch the Arsenal match on the television, before heading home. An excellent weekend and a very good team building session with a fantastic group of players.