USA Tour 2003 Quantico report.
The squad was kitted out with tracksuits, polo shirts, T shirts, bags,various training kit & drinks bottles all suplied by Lex Defence, Sodexho, Maximuscle & the RN&RM Sports Lottery,(we would like to thank all sponsors).
The coach set off from MT CTCRM at 5.30am Sunday 31st Aug with half the team still hung over from the team building exercise at Sams night club . We eventually arrived at Heathrow Airport and all checked in (Tel Price tried in vain to get his ticket upgraded to 1st class, their must be some mistake i'm an officer he was heard to say ?). anyway we made our way into the departure lounge were there was a Bacardi stand serving free bacardi at 0900, the lads thought they were in heaven and we had'nt even left the UK yet, we even rubbed shoulders with dwight Yorke and shaka hislop who were on their way to an international match, Iam sure Fast Feet Fullalove had dwights watch away ?
Jason Margrett and his Shadow for the tour George (who at this stage we thought had the largest heeed) Carlon had a drinking competion, they couldnt get their heads around the free bit ?
We were met at Dulles airport by spongebob squarepants aka Paul Curry and his son shaun who along with his wife mandy and daughter samantha looked after us for our stay (and great hosts they were)
We had only been in America 30mins before we found ourselves at Macky Dees, 22 big macs with large fries mate please, oh and can I have Diet coke with um, and that was just Jonny Byrnes order?
The hotel was situated inside the USMC base at Quantico and right outside it was our training pitch were Stevie Marr & George Kent were to put the lads through the paces, somedays training twice a day, it was hard work especially in the heat but Stevie had some great sessions he had picked up from his A licence coaching course and the lads really enjoyed them, George also put the keeper Jez Scherrer thru some gruelling sessions.
Paul curry had worked tirelessly to sort out four games only for two of them to pull the plug on us at the eleventh hour. Our first game was against the USMC who had drafted a couple of ringers in from washington, one of them was the keeper who kept the score down to 6-0 with the goals coming from Karl Lockhart 4 Paul curry 1 & kev Fullalove 1. All the squad got a run out including coach Stevie marr who got a flash out of his opponent when the yank did'nt take too kind to him after he nipped him, (sense of humour failure methinks !!!) Other points to note from the first game was that Richie Hope could'nt hit a barn door & Tommy the jockey Mcphee had flown in only hour earlier and despite a bit of jet lag he still managed 45 mins.
Jonny Byrne was once again the funniest bloke on earth, slagging off anything that moved or did'nt move in fact, which included George Kent and his washboard, some dodgy hairstyles and some strange clobber, blagging his way into vip areas with Tommy and much more, i think he will have to write it for his and Tommy's column.
Our second game was against a Quantico XI (basicly the USMC again) this time Robbie Buglass went in goal for them and did very well keeping the score down to 4-1 with goals from Lockhart 2 Fullalove 1 and finally richie hope breaking his tour duck (looked like an og to me though ?).
We also did a bit of RNR whilst out there which briefly included a free concert at capitol hill washington with britney spears, aerosmith, good charlotts, Mary j Blige and Aretha Franklin, and free hospitality courtesy of Jonny & Tommy the blag merchants, as much free beer and food as you could eat, and beleive me Phil Shuttleworth can eat ?
Other places included a round of golf at the medal of honour golf coure I,ll let Tommy spin that dit in his column. A day out in Washington taking in the sights.
Two days at New York visiting ground zero the Empire State building and Time square.
Paul Curry who was a superb host also laid on a beach party somewhere with a live band, BBQ's at Cuz's and Gaz Archers House and he even turned up at home after work to find 22 of us pissing up in his house watching England Qualify for Euro 2004,Thanks Cuz & Mandy (or is it Debbie Mags ?)
All spelling mistakes are diliberate to keep you on your toes ?
