Leaving Jamaica

14th April
After our one late night watching the hotel entertainment we woke early for a 7.30am breakfast [to make the most of the few hours we had left] and went to sit by the pool [at least the coaches did - although we did a check every 10 mins!!], the girls played water volleyball, sat at the pool bar with their pink creations [the E405 drinks], walked around , swam and basically did everything for one last time.  At 11.00 we all went to our rooms for a shower and final packing, met at 11.45 and had lunch and went to the airport at 12.45.
Winsomme [from St James Parish Netball] was there waiting for us and ensured we had no queues and that everything went smoothly.....well apart from Dionnes' missing suitcase, but Winsomme took care of that and both were reunited!  Thank you Winsomme for taking care of us all yet again.
After a bit of shopping we boarded our flight to find that the whole of the back of the plane empty so that left us plenty of room for each of us to have a row of four seats to sleep on!  As we took off we passed over the beautiful white sands and turquoise sea of Montego Bay....'Goodbye Jamaica' said the Ladies, and promptly grabbed their blankets and ran to the back of the plane to bags a set of 4 seats!

Thank you to all that have been involved with the organisation and delivery of this trip: Jill, Donna, Dionne, Colette, Elaine Ingram, Tony Coleman,  Tony Di Ponnio - Speedone One Sports, Josh and Tony - Just Swagga, Bartley Green School, Kingsbury School, Plantsbrook, School, Bishop Walsh and my colleagues in the office who have shared and helped with every challenge [!] .  The players have come up with some good ideas about how to move this forward, so looks like we will be working towards bringing a Jamaican team over here, we could hold a special tournament for them [with the BINL]and play some representative matches, have a reception at the Banqueting Suite in the Council House and then if someone has a big back garden with neighbours that don't mind loud music, we could carry on there...!  Look forward to meeting up with everyone at the follow up meeting 'Birmingham/Jamaica Celebration Evening' [PS Thank you Ladies for my lovely Thank you card and all the lovely messages  xx