OUSRC Abroad

Those touring were:

In 2000 the OUSRC had completed an immensely successful tour of the US. The Italy tour of Easter 2002 was a less ambitious venture in terms of distance travelled and the standard of squash, but in its own right worked out extremely well. Italian squash is of a mixed standard: there are few good female players, and many of the best men are ex-patriot Brits. We had been warned beforehand, native Italian squash players have interesting interpretations of the rules of the game. This was certainly confirmed in the course of our travels. Here follows a brief diary of the tour.

Sunday March 17

Flew out of Stansted dressed in compulsory multi-coloured tour T-shirts. We were met in Brescia by Amedeo Bianchetti father of the world number 46 Davide, who took us to our hotel. Our first taste of Italian cuisine was at a small resturant, where a toast was proposed for the success of the tour.

Monday March 18

Made the short train journey to Milan, and after checking into our hotel, made our way into the city centre. We returned to the hotel that evening somewhat overawed by the impressive scale of the Duomo and the cosmopolitan nature of Milan. Our first match was at Polisquash, a Gotham-city-style building, which looked nothing like a sports centre. Our host for the match was Duncan Steele, a former England junior squash player, cyclist and swimmer, whom we discovered had recently swum the channel for charity. Tom started us off with a win, but Samir struggled to adapt to the hot bouncy courts. Jade did well to win a tough match 3-1, while Kerri stormed to an easy victory. Nick got involved in an acrimonious match with some interesting refereeing and after over an hour on court against a former world top 50 Egyptian (now a bit portly) he lost 3-1 and the match was tied at 3 apiece, Oxford winning on countback of games. After a meal at a local restaurant none of us will forget the drive back to the hotel at 2am, most of us by Porshe, Kerri on a Vespa!

Tuesday March 19

We were reinforced by Lucinda and Nicole, and looked forward to our match against Vico, another Milan club that evening. Our host was another ex-pat, Tim Simpson, who again provided excellent, if laid-back entertainment. Tim started things off by sending Samir the wrong way about twenty times in their match, and Tom might have got more than one game, if he had remembered his contact lenses. The girls stormed to impressive victories, although Nick again got involved in a long match with a 6 foot 6 inch 18 stone opponent, losing 3-2. Again we tied the match three apiece, again we won on countback of games.

Wednesday March 20

A well-needed rest day was had by the squad. We caught the train to Florence, and arrived in gloriously warm weather. After finding our hotel, we took in the famous sights of Florence, and sampled some of the Italian nightlife that evening.

Thursday March 21

Our match in Florence was hosted a considerable distance from the city centre. After a lengthy bus journey, walking in circles for half an hour and Nick's blood pressure rising, we reached the club. The girls somewhat unfairly had to play men, and this contributed to Jade and Lucinda's losses. Kerri won, and although Samir and Tom had close matches, they both eventually succumbed. Nick played the club coach and our host Euan Mackay in an all-Scottish encounter, losing 3-2.

Friday March 22

We made an early start to catch the train for Rome, and after a delayed train journey and taste of Italian driving at its best from a taxi-driver, staggered into the Club Lanciani (our Rome venue) in 28 degree heat. There was a lively atmosphere, as an ATP women's tennis tournament was also being held there that weekend. Kerri and Jade both won, balancing Lucinda and Gemma's losses. Samir won his first match of the tour in an epic five games, and Tom also recovered from 2-0 down to win 3-2, after alcohol was offered as a reward. Nick lost to one of Italy's top players in three tough games. As that night was Gemma and Kerri's last in Italy, we saw them off in style, and suffered the consequences the next morning.

Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 March

We had the weekend free in Rome before heading back up north to play our final match in Brescia. A couple of days would have been ideal to do a bit of sight-seeing, except that we managed to coincide with an anti-terrorism rally of some three million people, the Pope's palm Sunday sermon in the vatican, and the Roman marathon.

Monday 25 March

Most of the day was spent making the long train journey back up North to Milan, then East to Brescia. Due to the train being delayed, we arrived at the chic Millennium club slightly late, and found that even if we had been on time, only a couple of the opposition had turned up. This was a bit of an anti-climax to the tour which had been excellently hosted up until then. By way of compensation, we were given free run of the club for a couple of hours, and all had games against Davide Bianchetti, the Italian number one and world number 46. This unfortunately meant that Nick didn't really have the opportunity to finally register a win on tour, but was good fun for everyone nonetheless. For our final Italian meal, we revisited the restaurant of our first night on tour, and were welcomed back by the owner.

Tuesday 26 March

We had to make an early start to catch the plane back to Standsted. Although Nick tried his hardest to stay in Italy by packing several pairs of scissors in his luggage and then denying they were there, we left the warm weather with some regret. On the flight, we could all reflect on a highly successful first joint tour - hopefully the first of many to come.