The Windsor Boys' School Canada Rugby Tour

06/03/2017

We've left Heathrow about twenty minutes ahead of schedule so should be back at the vansittart road gates at about 8.10.

06/03/2017

Morning everyone! We've literally just landed at Heathrow so are on schedule. Boys are all good.

If we encounter any hold ups I'll post on here but fingers crossed we'll be back at school within a couple of hours.

06/02/2017

It's 4.30 in the afternoon here and we're at the airport with everyone checked in and through security. It has been an absolute pleasure to accompany the boys on tour. They have been great fun to spend time with and have represented themselves, their families and their school with tremendous distinction throughout our time in Canada. Yesterday and today have been a little more relaxed with a morning spent at the beautiful beach in Cobourg yesterday before an afternoon of baseball cages, beach volleyball and mini golf.

We had a huge end of tour breakfast this morning and presented awards and prizes for man of each match, A and B team player of the tour, moment of each match day and overall man of the tour. It seems that maple syrup can be drizzled over just about any breakfast! This was followed with a final bit of shopping at an outlet centre. The boys are tired but have hopefully had a brilliant time.

The plan is to come back to the school gate on the vansittart road in the morning. We shall see you there. We are expecting to arrive at school at around 8.30am.

05/31/2017

Quick update while I have some wifi! Great morning tree top trekking and have just finished two more really tight games of rugby against Courtice. We won the first and narrowly lost the second-could have gone either way. Will try to get some more pictures and details up later on but do want to pass on some more feedback from a teacher from a school in Wales who we have seen at a few places. He said he had spoken to 6 or 7 of our boys and that they were by far the politest teenage boys he had ever come across. We're really proud of them.

05/30/2017

Good morning from 🇨🇦!

We had two fantastic games of rugby against Upper Canada College yesterday afternoon. The first game ended in a narrow defeat, 19-12. After conceding a couple of tries early in the game we just ran out of time in the end after being on top for much of the second half. Doug and Shay were the two try scorers.

The second game was also a tight affair but we emerged victorious after a pulsating second half. The final score was 17-14 in our favour and our try scorers were Matt, Connor and Oli. Both games were played in brilliant spirits and the lads enjoyed the BBQ afterwards. We're off to meet them now for a day at Wonderland.

05/29/2017

Game time!

05/29/2017

We've been warmly welcomed at Upper Canada College and the boys have enjoyed a good first night with their billets. Everyone is in good spirits and looking forward to the games later (scheduled for 4pm kick off). We're about to head up the CN tower and then should have time for some shopping at the Eden Centre before heading back for the games.

05/28/2017

Excitement building ahead of the baseball. Scheduled start time is 1.07pm.

05/28/2017

Wow! What a busy couple of days - it's been full on with not much wifi access so apologies for the delay in providing an update.

We had a fantastic time at the trampoline park yesterday morning - we had the entire place to ourselves and there were all sorts of things for the boys to do. Obstacle courses, slam dunks, dodgeball courts, foam pits and so on. On the way back to Eden High School we stopped at a small shopping mall so the boys could have lunch. The lady in the Subway restaurant there asked if we could get our lads to teach some of their local children how to say please and thank you. She said the boys were awesome. It confirmed our own view of the lads so far but was really lovely to hear.

It's probably fair to say that Eden High School are pretty good at rugby. They were quick out of the blocks in the first game and established a healthy lead by half-time. The second half saw an improvement from TWBS but ultimately there was no shame in losing to a really well-drilled side who are contesting the Ontario finals. The second game was tighter and could have gone either way but again Eden ran out the victors. Most importantly, both games were played in fantastic spirit and every member of our touring party played plenty of rugby and we move onto the game on Monday with a fully fit contingent of players.

We said goodbye to our hosts at Eden just after 9 this morning - they were great hosts and really looked after the boys well. We've just arrived at our hotel for the evening after an awesome day. We drove to Niagara on the Lake this morning and went on a jetboat on the rapids. The river separates America and Canada and the boys were given a quick history lesson as the boat drove to the rapids. Hitting the rapids was one of the highlights of the tour so far as the jetboat crashed into wave after wave, soaking everyone on the boat.

The afternoon saw us drive back into the centre of Niagara and after a spot of lunch, board the boat to take us up to the falls. Awe-inspiring is the best word to describe getting up close to the power and intensity of the falls. Once back on dry land, the boys had some free time to wander around Niagara. We've just returned from dinner and are hoping for a good night's sleep as we have an early start tomorrow to get into Toronto in plenty of time for a spot of shopping before taking in the Blue Jays game in the afternoon.

05/26/2017

05/26/2017

We have arrived at the sky zone trampoline park. The boys are in great spirits after their first night at their billets. After the trampolining we are off for a spot of lunch before the first fixtures of the tour which are scheduled for 1.30 and 2.30 kick offs local time.