Norwich City Girls U14's and U16's Longleat Tour Overview

Last weekend Norwich City Girls Centre of Excellence U14 and U16 squads travelled to Longleat in their annual Centre of Excellence Tour.   The U10 and U12 squads will also be going over the bank holiday weekend.

The tour gives an opportunity for the girls to spend a weekend together in their squads, away from family life, taking part in fixtures against other Centres they do not usually play. 

To enable the girls to go each player and their squad raise money through fundraising events such as Bag packing and Raffles.  They are also given the opportunity to ask local companies for Sponsorship, something which has proved very successful in previous tours and once again this year.  A big thank you to all the sponsors who have contributed in sponsoring a player, click here to see who they are.

Whilst the girls are away they take turns in writing a tour diary which is put onto the website for their parents to read.  Below are the tour diary entries for the 14's and 16's.

Day 1

Written by the girls of Villa 529 (Laura, Hannah, Paige, Hayley, Danielle, Holly, Drakey.

We were supposed to meet at 9.30am, but as always Paige was late!  Why you may ask?  Because she was shopping! 

We raved constantly on the bus to tunes from the past, but always wearing our seatbelts (obviously).  Later on at the service station we stopped for lunch and stocked up on food, well aware that Claire was cooking us tea tonight.  This allowed Thacker to relieve herself once more.  We met Uma and Albert, to great examples of the local community!

We finally arrived at Centre Parcs around 3pm, and Emma and Claire managed to 'sweet talk' the security people into taking the food and our bags to our villas in two minibuses.  A few of us managed to hide inbetween the bags and also hitch a ride!  The remainder set off on what was to be an expedition into the wilderness and after some confusion as to where the rooms actually were; we arrived an hour later (well seemed like an hour).

Having all unpacked and been given the chance to explore our surroundings we are eagerly awaiting Claires and Dans aka Delia and Jamies culinary delights that are due to be dished up shortly. 

We are looking forward to our early start tomorrow where we will be travelling to Weston Super Mare to face Wiltshire and Plymouth.

Finally the Under 16s would like to reassure all the girls parents that they are setting a prime example to the younger girls.

Day 2

Written by Anna, Chelsea, Milly, Amber, Flo, Fran, Nikita

We woke up with a fright after hearing frantic banging on the door, thanks alot Scott!  A bad nights sleep took its toll during the 5 mile hike to our bus, up the biggest mountains we have ever seen! 

We then arrived at Weston Super Mare ready for our first match against Wiltshire, we battled through the wind and rain to achieve a 5-0 victory, the goal scorers were; Lucy (fluke), Drakey x 2, Amber (pen), Nikita.  The U14's triumphed in their first match with a 3-0 victory.  Lisa-Marie, Bryony with a wonder goal and Sarah got one as well.

The second match against Plymouth Argyle was a harder struggle, we were saved by a brillaint goal by drakey (fluke).  The U14's not wanting to be left out, also facing a harder game, won 2-1, taking Sarah's goal tally to 3 for the day.  Special mention to Fiona's celebration of the winning goal and Jordan's performance as linesman (more like trying to land aeroplanes).

Thankfully we managed to flag the land train down to secure a much happier and less exhausting journey back to our villas.  Fletch was over the moon!

Once we returned Flo's ordeal began, it was a normal dayI went to go to the bathroom then I saw lurking in the corner (the spider) it was a size of the small cat, it went for me but I battled it off and ran from the beast.  Then Holly the saviour came and slayed the evil creature!  (please note no animals were actually hurt in this incident it was let loose into the wilderness).

After showering the food tech students in the U16's villas took charge of their dinner with expected sucess.  Only a slight traumer such as boiling over pasta, a possible gas leak andnot to mention the smoke alarm being set off, dinner was served.

The U14's were also fed and watered aided by Claire and Dan once more.

Some of the girls have chosen to go swimming this evening and some have chosen to play Poker in the villas (no money has been exchanged, just Haribo).

Tomorrow the girls will be having a relaxing day at the Parc, before eating out at Huckleburys restaurant.

Day 3

by Claire, Brogan, Midge, Lauren, Kyla, Lisa, Sarah and Amy

The morning was very busy after we attempted to wake Amy from her double bed which was very unsuccessful. We then walked down many hills to the lake for a morning of water sports. This consisted of many water races using Kayak's, pedalos and canoes, what a day.... Wet!!!! (We would like everyone to be aware that Dan Goffin and his crew continually cheated throughout the whole morning and spent most of the time in the trees over the far bank of the lake). Scotts team were then crowned the Wacky races winners.

Next stop... relaxation a bit of lunch and a chat before catching the land train to the Plaza for shopping and bowling. Then yum yum Dinner. No food from Claire and Dan but a delightful meal at Huckleberry's Restaurant.

After Dinner was swim time. Us girls found it entertaining to see how many bruises Fletch would get on the rapids, last count was around the 50 mark. But a good time was had by all.

After swimming we returned to the Villas some were lucky to get the train and some had to run with the coaches, we will leave you to guess which coaches were running and which ones got on the train!!

We then packed our things ready for the morning and then got a good nights sleep ready for our last match against Colchester United, kick off 4pm.

Day 4

Today was the last day of the annual Girls Centre of Excellence Tour after what has been a very hectic 4 days. With their 2 fixtures against Cornwall and Plymouth, swimming, water sports and bowling there has been very little time for much else.

However, this morning the girls packed their things, cleaned their villas until they were gleaming and then spent their last few hours around Centre Parcs and making the long trek from the villas to the coach.

After leaving Centre Parc at about 11am they made their way to their final fixture Colchester United. The girls knew that this would be a tough game and great preparation for their League match on Saturday which could see the U16's clinch the league title.

At the time of writing the scores are U16's losing 2-1 and the U14's drawing 2-2 with about 20 minutes to go, I will leave the girls to let you know the final scores.

I am also pleased to report as of 5.30pm that the coach should be on time arriving back at Norwich City FC at 8pm. If this changes the girls will call Parents please be aware that there is a Norfolk County FA Junior Cup Final at Carrow Rd this evening but the main car park or gravel car park at the back of the car park will be available.

Dont forget to the U10 and U12 will also be writing a tour diary whilst they are away, to keep updated with their trip visit our website.