We made it - August 19th

So here we are in Toronto. Staying at the Hampton Inn where we get free breakfast but sadly there is no bar. Suffice it to say Jo is not impressed.

We arrived and received our flashy red pants - all of which were too long so a hemming party commenced in one of the rooms. Who would have known TC (Aka Coach) was so good at ironing. He was a stalwart at the ironing board and hemmed all our trousers, singing as he ironed. Helene and Meara were troopers/stupid and did theirs with a needle and thread (took them ages and there was much abuse given by the rest of us).

We should introduce our team mascot at this point. He is a lovely beaver named "Hoarfrost" (that will be the swear word of choice on the field in order to comply with the ICC code of conduct). Hoarfrost has his own matching outfit cunningly crafted by Jo from the leftover material from our pants. I am sure there will be many photos with Hoarfrost featured prominently.

Yesterday we had our first practice at the Ross Lords Nets (6 nets in all). Ann Browne-John, former captain and coach of the West Indies Cricket team came to give us some pointers. She had a few helpers from the Trinidad under 17 team (one of which has just been selected for the West Indies Senior womens side!) who bowled at us. We did well despite being "Lunchless" due to some interesting scheduling. Lucky there was a hot dog stand nearby (we are elite national athletes after all!). Some of the gals were interviewed by the CBC radio so keep your ears peeled for that interview! We had good spectator support, most notably Vadeo's family who cheered us on from the side of the nets ( and some guys who were asking for Jo's #8 jersey).

We have been dining out as a team which proves challenging due to the fact the hotel shuttle doesn't hold all of us and reservations for 16 are hard to make. We spent about 45 minutes in the milestones parking lot waiting to be picked up last night. Thankfully TC was in fine singing form and serenading us at every oppurtunity, in fact he sings pretty much all the time. Even when he shows up late for our first team breakfast ... tsk ... tsk. Other than that we are hanging in for our first game on Monday against the Trinidad Under 17 team. The team will be announced tonight.

More updates to come....

Shelly, Meara, Kim, Maree and Jo