A veritable lie in this morning with alarms set for 8am as the sessions today were all within camels spitting distance of our hotel. The hotel breakfast has proved rather good (couldn’t have got much worse than last weeks to be fair), with sausages , eggs, and baked beans all gaining merit awards from the chaps. They even unearthed a bottle of HP sauce for us. Ding Dong. So, after completing the afore-mentioned feast at our leisure we headed for Braeburn Primary school. This proved to be a mini oasis in the middle of Nanyuki. Only a few months old and with mainly ExPat kids, it was very reminiscent of many an English Prep school. They even had a sit down khasi…sheer luxury.
Again, Ghazi and Phil were starting a 2 day Coach Eduction programme, with the famous 5 cracking on with coaching the kids. It soon became apparent however that there were more teachers on the Coach Ed (25) than there were kids to coach ( 24) so Ben Chopper Francis was drafted in to help. There were teachers from 11 different schools and the Laikipia District Sports Development Officer, and TTP of course. This was a serious group. We got under way on time, only for the Head Mistress to come and interrupt us an hour later to inform us that tea and biscuits were being served in the classroom that had been made available to us. How nice was that !! Then, would you Adam and Eve it they only provided lunch for everyone. Spag Bol…and a bloody good one at that. Now this was more like it. I believe they missed a trick by not opening a nice bottle of Barolo to go with the pasta, but never mind.
The four coaches moved onto Brickwood Primary in Nanyuki for the afternoon session, whilst the Coach Ed group bashed on tirelessly with their goal of tutoring the one handed pick and under arm throw. Much to everyone’s disappointment it then decided to rain…and rain…and rain. It didnt stop for 8 hours. and it was proper rain. Loads of the stuff. Obviously with the schedule being so tight, Ghazi soldiered on as you would expect from a mighty Level 3 coaching warrior. Phil and Ben, however made several excuses to keep returning to the comfort of class 2B.
The coaches got another 51 kids involved in their first cricket experience and explained to them that playing cricket in the rain was all part and parcel of the game. In a totally bizarre experience, all the group was back at base by 4.30 pm. This just didn’t seem right, but who were we to argue.
In a cunning ploy, we decided to return to the scene of last nights slow cooking, but put the order in for starters over the phone to be ready for our arrival at 7.30. This worked a dream, and we were tucking into our potato skins at the same time as ordering our main courses…..which tuned up 2 hours later. What the f***ing hell was the bloke in white in the kitchen doing? Because it certainly wasnt cooking. Was he engrossed on Coronation Street ? Was he knitting a new jumper perhaps? Who knows , but to be honest mate, shape up or ship out. You’re now getting on everyone’s t*ts.