Final Day - Probably the last Blog Entry!!!
____________________________________________

Well, as fast as it snuck up on us all - World Junior Championships 2010 has drawn to a close at the prizegiving dinner tonight in Quito, Ecuador, put on by Hotel Dann Carlton where we have been lucky enough to stay for the duration of the event.

I'll start it from the beginning - early game at 10am meant an EARLY WAKE UP, 10 am is when we've been eating BREAKFAST! It was alright though, we got down to breakfast and got in a good feed before we headed off to the club in the bus like usual - except this time for the LAST TIME! Was a good feeling to get there knowing there was one more day of business to be done - then a little bit of time to relax and enjoy our success!

The boys jumped on for their usual hit out before the match...

Paul was then on first vs 6th placed/seeded individual Aditya Jagtap of India (playing order 1 2 3) and managed to take the first game even though he was down a few points for a start - was a good one to win to break the spirits of the Indian number one player.

He played really well and didn't let Jagtap in to take out the match 3 - 0. Next on was Lance with the chance to win the tie for us 2 - 0, unfortunately a hard two weeks of matches took it's toll and after getting an epic first set, he couldn't hold on and lost it in 4, was a good effort nonetheless!!!

Next on was Bryce vs Ramit Tandon - a talented young Indian that he unfortunately didn't manage to beat today, which meant NZ went down 2-1 but we fought hard and still managed to come 6th place, the best finish since 1992!!! So I think we can be proud of ourselves and what we have done for New Zealand squash!

The rest of the day was spent watching the England vs Canada 3rd and 4th battle which Canada, 5th seeds, took out 2-1 with a really close match in the 2nd and 3rd - could have gone either way, was a tense one!!! We even got McDonalds - dunno if I should put this on the blog but we've eaten healthy the whole trip and it was a bit different!

New Zealand, 6th!

Back to the hotel - closing ceremony was a big event with all the teams suiting up and going to one of the function rooms for the prizegiving dinner etc, the boys were all looking pretty sharp in their suits!

We even got a photo with the local kid that hangs around the tournament every day talking to people and finding out how everyone is going - such a cool kid who always wants to know how you're doing!! Anthony traded shirts with him and got an Ecuador one in return - he was repping it pretty well at the dinner tonight, wore it over his top everywhere! Easy way to get New Zealand on the map!

We even found a guy that reminded us of Lance from Palmerston North Worlds in 06 - the one that cleans the ball in between games and the walls of the glass court every opportunity! So we got a photo of them together, they even look alike! Was pretty funny for us. Had to be there perhaps, but I'm sure you can see it!

Well, I don't really have too much more to say other than it is currently midnight and our plane is leaving EARLY in the morning - we have to be in the lobby at 5:45 which means a 5am get up! That's brutal - now we're up to FIVE hours before our normal breakfast time! Got a LONG flight ahead, not looking forward to it one bit, but am looking forward to the final destination which is home which I know we all are - it's gonna be good to get back to that home cooking (I'm not suggesting anything to our families but umm... how about a roast?!) and our own beds! Been an amazing trip and I would like to informally thank Squash New Zealand, all the people that have commented and followed this blog - I know there's a few of you, we even got a mention at the prizegiving dinner tonight! All of our families and friends that have supported all of us over the years and given us the confidence to get this far, Anthony - for everything you have done with us - it's been an amazing journey and it's only the beginning!! Greg - all those hard sessions!! They helped us out heaps, especially at altitude and bring them on again, can't wait for more at sea level!!! I won't go into too many names coz I'll forget people - but I've been writing the blog so if I can thank my mother, father, aunty and uncle for putting up with me this year and Georgina too (sorry about the mention) for putting up with me always!

Enough of the thank you's though - I'm sure this blog will be rekindled in the future by future junior teams and definitely by us as we aim for Senior worlds and Commonwealth Games in the future - I hope we have managed to start some kind of tradition in which teams will let people back home know how they are going!

Thank you everyone - and we will see you all at the airport, 5:20am Tuesday morning, Auckland International :) can't wait!!!!

Adios! Buenos noches??

5 - 8 Playoff Day
___________________

New Zealand 2 - Germany 1

(1) Paul Coll vs Rudi Rohlmuller
Lose 3/2

(3) Michael Sunderland vs Simon Vaclahovsky
Win 3/1

(2) Lance Beddoes vs Sven Lemmerman
Win 3/1

Today we took out 9th seeded Germany in the 5-8 playoffs to prove that New Zealand's run through to the quarter finals was not simply a lucky draw or a lucky win in pool play - we showed what we are here to do!

It was inspiring stuff, a 2pm game to decide whether we play off for 5th and 6th, or 7th and 8th. We decided as a team that we could do it - and of course we would rather come 5th or 6th than 7th and 8th!!!

Grabbed some lunch and caught a 12:30 bus, a little story about the buses now. We have started to have a police escort - so we have a little friend on a motorbike (policia) that goes ahead and stops traffic at lights and stuff so we don't need to worry about lights, we just get a clean run through! Today this was especially good coz traffic was terrible and it makes for a pretty uncomfortable, hot journey in the bus if we are always stopped! But yeah, it's pretty cool being able to dodge in and out of traffic however we want to get there fast!!

From left: Johannes Thurauf, Valentin Rapp, Coach, Rudi Rohlmuller (1), Sven Lemmerman (2), Simon Vaclahovsky (3), Michael, Paul, Lance, Anthony (sure you got those ones...)

Had a hit around to get used to the court like we always do with the 3 that are playing - then it was Paul up first again vs 4th seeded from individuals Rudi Rohlmuller - a big guy that has a really aggressive style of play. Started off playing alright but went down in the first two games, before making a huge comeback to bring it back to 2 all - playing amazingly taking the next two games 11 - 1, 11 - 2! Unfortunately a big 5th proved the German still had some fight in him!

I was up next against Simon Vaclahovsky - a tough match but one I knew I could win if I played well. Went on and started solid getting a good lead and maintaining it, getting the first game. Did the same thing in the second, playing really good, solid squash. Unfortunately in the 3rd I was starting to get a bit tired, and couldn't quite hold on to take it in the 3rd even though I had a slight lead - worked hard in the 4th though and pushed through the tiredness to come back from 10 - 8 down (the support crew was getting a bit stressed!!!) to take the match 12 - 10 in the 4th - I'm thankful for that much!

Lance was up next vs Sven Lemmerman - and I must tell you all, sitting there watching is probably THE most nerve wracking part - playing is the easy part and playing is still pretty darn nerve wracking! Our thoughts go out to Anthony (all the stress we put him through, losing the 3rd to make it a 4th set and then going game ball down!!) we're probably going to turn him grey really shortly! As you can see in the picture though technical zone is a pretty tense place - a lot of nerves in those 3 chairs!!!

Lance worked Sven hard in the first set and came out with a commanding lead - although he went back on in the second a little more relaxed and Sven came at him twice as hard sending him straight back out to Anthony for some stirring up... He went back on in the 3rd and 4th and played really well, pushed the German boy hard and forced him to make mistakes - was well played from Lance and gave New Zealand the win over another higher seeded team - and a technical zone that was really thankful for the stress to be over!!!

Pretty good feeling for the guys - just would like to say that the last time we were in a 5th and 6th play off was in 1992 - and we came 6th. In 1990 we came 5th - although there were less teams in these days! So either way tomorrow, we are going to do the best we have done in 18 or 20 years! A pretty amazing effort and we were all feeling pretty proud to be New Zealanders!

If I could also quickly pay tribute to a couple of our biggest supporters over here in Ecuador that are due a mention - the Koteka family (Walter Koteka is a member of the Australian team) that were originally from Tokoroa if I'm right, have been at almost all of our games cheering for us and helping us through. Though we would get a photo of them to put on the blog to show our appreciation!

BUT, it's not over yet. We have a 10am game tomorrow vs India - who beat France today 2 - 1 in the other 5-8 match, and we want to do our best in this game and get on the plane on Sunday as champions! Either way we have done amazing but our campaign at the 2010 World Juniors isn't quite over, we are going to give it our 100% best shot - there's no reason we can't keep our streak going :).

Thanks guys - I look forward to bringing good news to you all tomorrow!

Quarter Finals Day
___________________

So today wasn't as good a day as previous - but hey, let's be honest, we still did okay!!! Although a 3 - 0 loss to England looks like it was easy - it really wasn't, with a few little things going our way things could have been different - England just was the best team today so kudos to them - they played well.

I had some good jokes for today's blog but thanks to someone commenting that I should be getting the other boys to help with my jokes I have lost all my confidence and so I'm not even going to try now!! Yes, offended! (Joke??!) Hmm!

Paul started us off against Number 5 ranked junior Charles Sharpes (came 5th in Individuals) so it was always going to be a tough battle - he played really well and was unlucky to not push through and take the third - he was up 8 - 5 if I remember, but Charles pushed through and didn't make mistakes to get England off to a 1 - 0 lead with Lance about to go on (playing order 1 2 3).

Lance was playing English number two Nathan Lake - who had a good individual event as well and stormed off to a 2 - 0 lead. Lance was playing really well - good intensity and aggression level, really keeping his English opponent on the back foot the whole time and giving NZ a huge chunk of hope to pull our way back into the tie.

Unfortunately a few hard matches over the last few days took their toll and Lake managed to edge his way back into the game to win it in 5 for England, a really good fight, Nathan played a really good game and it was unfortunate we couldn't pull Lance through!! He gave it his best though and I think that I can speak for everyone when I say that he has done NZ proud! Same with all the boys - we can all be proud of them! Got a pretty nice picture of Lance after his game though - a good indication of how much he put into the game.

Bryce went on against number 3 from England James Earles for the dead rubber match with a little less motivation than he probably would have had if New Zealand had drawn 1 all and it was a decider - Earles taking out the best of 3 battle in 2 games unfortunately.

This is just a photo of the bus trip! Not sure why I added this one...

Tomorrow we are playing GERMANY in the 5-8 playoffs. Will be a big match and we are hoping to go alright - will again give it our best and try and do New Zealand proud - we appreciate all your support! Looking forward to the match.

Also, only 3 more sleeps untill home time - for those wondering about our flights home, tournament finishes on Saturday (Sunday NZ time) and then we have Closing Ceremony/Prizegiving where we get suited up again (will get some photos!) and then we leave Sunday morning quite early I believe, flying through Lima, Peru - to Santiago, Chile again before we board our last flight bound for Auckland! We land at 4.20am on Tuesday 10th August (NZ time!) so be good to see you all at the airport!!!!!!!

Thanks guys

Round of 16 day...
_____________________

(3) Bryce Redman vs Wilfredo Arcia
Win 3/0, 11 4, 11 2, 11 6

(1) Paul Coll vs Daniel Prato
Win 3/1, 11 6, 11 5, 10 12, 11 6

(2) Lance Beddoes vs Alejandro Suarez

Win 2/0, 11 8, 11 1

Ok ok, for all the people that wanted pictures, I have some pictures today!!! With all the excitement in the last few days - eg watching Mexico we were all playing the games with each other, every shot, so much that taking photos never even came close to crossing any of our minds!!!

Bryce was a bit tired on the bus yesterday...

Today was a good day for New Zealand with a solid win over the Venezuelan boys that made it past South Africa in pool play due to a mix up with the playing order which caused a surprise forfeit. All the boys went out and did the business, and did it as well as they could. We had won the tie before the 3rd rubber which meant no pressure for Lance today - was good of us to give him a rest from it after all the pressure we loaded on him against Mexico!

Playing order for today was Bryce (3), Paul (1) and then Lance (2) - 3rd day in a row that Lance has played last!

Bryce was on first against Venezuelan number 3 Wilfredo Arcia, and played a solid game and didn't let Wilfredo in at all to take the commanding win, 3 - 0, 11 4, 11 2, 11 6. Well done Bryce - looked good from the technical chair with Anthony!

Bryce on court in his game, winning drop, think it was supposed to be a drive! Jokes, thought it was a good photo.

Paul warming up - Anthony and Bryce having a little chat...

So as you can see from this picture, Paul is on next vs Daniel Prato (number one from Venezuela), also my first round opponent from individuals. Paul took the the first two games pretty comfortably, but never really got into his rhythm - and the Venezuelan boy showing heart and bringing hope to his team managed to take the 3rd game and put a bit more pressure on the New Zealand team support - but went back on relaxed in the 4th and took the win and the passage through to the Quarter finals for New Zealand which was a great feeling for the team!!!

This was my personal favourite photo of the day - this is the New Zealand corner!!! Well done to Paul for the win, did NZ proud again!

No pressure on Lance, he went on against Alejandro Suarez - funnily enough the guy he was supposed to play first round of individuals before it was swapped up a little and Lance was given a bye. Rules of the tournament as decided at the manager's meeting prior is that dead rubber's must be played but only best of 3 (each match is known as a "rubber" and the team match can be referred to as the "tie" for future reference - as you can imagine, dead rubber is when the tie has been won after the 2nd match - so it's only gonna make it 2 - 1 or 3 - 0, not change the outcome).

So Lance played best of 3 and won 11 - 8, 11 - 1. Got us all a little bit nervous as the first game went on but went out in the second after a stir up from Anthony and was up 10 0 before dropping a point then taking the match - well done to Lance, even though it wasn't going to change the outcome a 3 - 0 win looks a lot better than a 2 - 1 win so you did well.

New Zealand team seen here with the Venezuelan team - spot the wrong thing in the photo!! Lance and Paul - thanks for setting up the flag right for the photo!!! My excuse is Bryce, Anthony and I just ran in and jumped straight in the photo - Lance and Paul sorted the flag!! This won't happen again! Still a good photo of the team though.
Venezuelan's from left - (Coach), Daniel Prato (1), Wilfredo Arcia (3) and Alejandro Suarez (2).

Tomorrow we are playing ENGLAND (6 vs 3) in the quarter final - so will be a big one for the boys, not sure who will be playing 3 but Lance and Paul are definitely playing - either way we are all going to give it everything we can give it!

Before I go, one last photo - I thought it was fitting.

Bryce has turned into a bit of a celebrity with the Ecuadorian ladies - they wanted his tshirt!!!! I think they just wanted to take it off him on the spot... well done Bryce! I'm glad you said no as well!

OH a last afternote (edited in) we love to hear your comments and discuss them every day - so do keep them coming we appreciate the support - good to know people back home are reading and enjoying the blog, and behind us like we do know you are!!! So if there's anything anyone wants to say - it gives us a buzz!

Hello New Zealand!!

We have some good news for you all - New Zealand has taken out Mexico (11th seeds vs 6th seeds) on the glass court at Condado Shopping Centre - in an huge 2 -1 battle.

Unfortunately again there's no photos - we have a good reason for this but in due time we will try get them up!!! You'll have to bare with me and my writing, hopefully I don't bore you too much!

Paul kicked us off to a pearler against 7th seed (from the individual draw) Miled Zarazou, who was Mexico's number 1 - and after being 1 - 0 and then 2 - 1 down, managed to fight back to win an epic 5 setter, there were some nervous moments for the team watching but Paul played amazingly well and it was a well timed, well deserved win!

I was up next against Mario Yanez - and got off to a good start winning the first game - unfortunately I made a few errors and he started dominating across the middle of the court and I struggled and couldn't fight my way back into it, a bit disappointing for me when I saw the other boys games but I did give it my best - unfortunately putting all the pressure back on our number two Lancey...

Lance played Ricardo Lopez - a fit, gutsy player with some really good shots from everywhere on the court - Lance went down 2 - 0 pretty quickly and we were starting to get a bit scared, but a good rark up from Anthony between games saw Lance go back on and command a comeback to take that set and bring some real positivity to his game. He went back on and took out the 4th game, the most memorable moment for us was at 9 - 8 up to him, he had a gigantic rally (must of been like 3 minutes!) and they were both stumbling around the court, the other guy flicked the ball off the back and we were thinking "quick, drop drop drop!" and we see him line up a cross court nick (what are you thinking Lance!?!?!?!?!?!) and then perfectly execute it to go up game ball and make it a 5th set. I'm sure you can all picture Lance doing it! He battled out one of the toughest fifth sets I've seen - playing in a completely tired state and doing everything he could - at 5 all we were wishing it could be over (pretty stressful watching, we should probably be apologising to our families for all the games over the years about here!) and then Lance managed to get up 9 - 5 after a few solid rallies. Bryce, Paul, Anthony and I along with some of our Indian friends were all on the edge of our seats, clapping and I'm sure there was even some full roars of "COMMMMME ON!!!!!!". The last few rallies were huge and intense and the biggest rally of the match saw Lance win 11 - 8 in the 5th to give us a 2 - 1 win over Mexico.


(1) Paul Coll vs Miled Zarazou
Win
(3) Michael Sunderland vs Mario Yanez
Lose
(2) Lance Beddoes vs Ricardo Lopez
Win

(I'll add scores when they are up on website...)

That's all I'm gonna say about that but it was a good fight, and tomorrow we have our best opportunity at making the top 8 - thats QUARTER FINALS of the World Junior Teams Event! We have been drawn to play Venezuela who made it through their pool over South Africa after a shock forfeit due to a mix up with the South African team.

Tomorrow we are going to go out there and give it our best shot, and hopefully we can be writing to the blog tomorrow night with more good news, we will give it absolutely everything we've got!


Cheers guys!!

Day 1 of teams and a 3 0 win to the boys against Guatamala - played pretty well all round and was a good way to kick off the teams event!

(3) Bryce Redman vs Antonio de la Torre
Win 3/0 - 11 2, 11 5, 11 2

(1) Paul Coll vs Bryan Bonilla
Win 3/0 - 11 3, 12 10, 11 4

(2) Lance Beddoes vs Luis Pedro Flores
Win 3/0 - 11 3, 11 2, 11 8

Were all good games, Bryce kicked us off to a good start with his win - which wasn't as much of a walkover as it looked - the guy fought back alright but Bryce didn't let him in and played too well and ended up dominating Antonio de la Torre.

Paul was next on - all set to take the pressure off Lance at 2, and played the top Guatamalan player who was actually quite skillful, was a good battle, Paul was too good for Bryan though and took it out 3 0 as well, another good win for the team so congratulations Paul!

Lance then played their number 2 and won comfortably to seal the 3 0 win for New Zealand in the first day of pool play.

Now we only have to defeat Mexico tomorrow to seal a good opportunity to get into the top 8 - should be a good game, looking forward to the battle! Not sure who is playing or anything yet, but will let you know how we get on! Sorry there are no pictures today, we mucked up the camera and left the memory card (so technically ***I*** mucked up the camera!!) in the computer so yeah!

Take care all and talk tomorrow.

The individual event finished today - with Amr Khaled Khalifa coming out with a solid performance to take out 2nd seeded Egyptian Ali Farag in a long, tight 4 set match. Was great squash to watch - both players showing the necessity of good length and taking the ball in short at the right time - and was a good battle with a huge croud at the Condado Shopping Centre in Quito. Marwan El Shorbagy took out Pakistani Farhan Zaman for 3rd and Charles Sharpes defeated Aditya Jagtap of India in straight sets for 5th.

Farag (2) on left and Khalifa (1) on right.

This is Khalifa straight after win...

Teams event beginning tomorrow we have Guatamala first up - at the Quito Tenis y Golf Club - should be a good battle, and we are looking forward to the challenge. On Tuesday we play Mexico who are 6th seeds (we are 11) on the Glass Court so we had a hit there today for training instead of the normal courts - should be a good match up so we will be sure to give it our absolute best and let you know how it goes.

Aside from the squash we have had some good stories to share - one of which was Bryce, Lance and my journey to the shopping centre today for training... we jumped in a car at the hotel with one of the hotel driver people and off we go behind Anthony and Paul who are in a hotel car as well - and they are driving quite fast as people over here do... Our driver is trying to stick with Paul and Anthony's and eventually goes through a blatant red light (looks first, no one is coming so shoots straight through) and all of a sudden we hear a siren behind us. The guy puts on his seatbelt and swears and puts his foot down a bit pretending it's not him.... at the next traffic lights (he stops...) the police (POLICIA) pulls up next to us and he just refuses going through red light. We pull over, he gets out and has a huge argument, eventually comes back all angry with a ticket and drives us really calmly most of the way to Shopping centre - apart from when he overtook a bus on the wrong side of the road when a car was coming! Gooood experience!

Ecuador (you may or may not be aware) is spanish for EQUATOR. This is because the "dead centre" of the world is located here - 0 longitude, 0 lattitude!

We were lucky enough to on Saturday (Sunday nz time) take the 20 minute trip from the club to the centre of the earth - and the northern hemisphere! The natives found the Equator a few hundred years back - with none of the technology we have today. This original line is still there - but with the aid of gps and such technology it was found that the equator was in fact 200m away... 200m! We thought it was pretty impressive that with no tools but their minds and their eyes - the locals managed to find the equator that pretty much is correct!!

There is just an orange line along the equator - and they say that on one side the water goes one way and the other side goes the other way - and straight down in the middle!! It's true!! We got some cool photos of us at the equator... really was a cool experience, did some jumps over the equator... Northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere, northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere... etc etc!

My personal favourite photo of us all since we've been here - just relaxing on the equator...

Julie's (Paul's mum) finger in the bottom of the photo - but in front of the monument which marks 0 0 0 latitude! Bryce and me are in the North and Lance and Paul in the South!



Training.... its ok to leave your wallet and glasses on the ground over here!



Best photo we got of the equator - speaks for itself :).

So that's all from us for today - hope you enjoyed our experience - it was a goody! Looking forward to tomorrows match and we will try update tomorrow night if we get the opportunity :)

Take care all!

PS. If my Aunty/Uncle is reading this I hope your half marathon went well! :)

WARNING: LONG BLOG ENTRY!
...apologies in advance if you were in the middle of something!

Dear blog and all of you that have been following and waiting for this entry,

I am sorry we haven't written to you in a while - we have had a hectic few days which are now over - unfortunately!!!

I'll start from the beginning (Day one of the tournament) we all have to take different buses to the club due to our different game times - Bryce with the early game left on a brutal 7.30am bus with Anthony to make the 40 minute journey to the club for his 9am start against Canadian Arjun Gupta - a battle which he unfortunately lost in a close 3 - the altitude proving a little much against a really tough drawn out first round opponent.

Next up was me at 11.15 - I managed to come out on top with a convincing win over Daniel Prato from Venezuela - a good confidence booster leading into my next round against one of Pakistan's top juniors Farhan Zahman in the afternoon...

Even managed to get interviewed for Ecuador TV - had to talk really slow so they understood me!! NZ is now on the map in Ecuador...

Paul played a young Ecuadorian guy Sebastian Larrea and won in 3, pretty convincingly leading him through to the next round in the afternoon - against 3rd seed Lucas Serme from France.

Lance got to have a good sleep in (good stuff Lance!) and caught a 2pm bus for his 4.30 game in the afternoon for his second round tussle with Kuwait number one Yousef Saleh.

Bryce was up first for his first round of the plate against German Simon Vaclahovsky - a really tough battle which he unfortunately after 2 0 up - (dominating) ran out of steam with the altitude and just missed out on the win - another tough draw even for the plate when we looked around to see some of the other games on. He worked really hard and was unlucky not to come out with the win.

Lance was up next and took out Yousuf Saleh from Kuwait in straight games, the Kuwaiti was fit and a fighter but Lance proved too strong - fighting back as he does from 10 8 down in the second to break the guys spirits to take the third comfortably. Well done Lance for moving into round 3, into the top 32 in the world!

I played next, getting on against Pakistani Farhan Zahman and having a good warm up - unfortunately though the pace was intense, never having played or seen a Paki play, it was just too fast and I couldn't keep it up and ended up losing 3 0 - luckily enough he is still in the final 8 - I'll be cheering for him, just so that I can say I lost to the winner!! Unfortunately into the classic plate for me.

Paul then went on (it was quite good how it worked, we played one after another which meant we could all have Anthony for each game - which was handy, we could have all been scheduled on at the same time!) to play talented young Frenchman Lucas Serme who (after some huge, close rallies!) managed to get there 3 0 to put Paul and I in the same boat going into the classic plate - up to Lance to keep flying the individual flag for New Zealand against Aditya Jagtap from India.

Wednesday night marked the night of the Opening Ceremony - and we were pretty unsure about it - seemed like a weird idea to have it on the first night of play - after two rounds there were only 32 people left in the main draw which you can imagine makes for some upset players - a couple of upsets throughout the day and big games such as (unluckily) unseeded Andrew Schnell, Canada's number one player vs Mohammed El Sherbini from Egypt - a battle that Sherbini came out on top of in a close 4 - was the first real tight game we got to watch and it was of a huge standard - was great to see.

The opening ceremony consisted of all the countries dressing up (I must admit we looked pretty swish - unfortunately didn't have a camera with a memory card with us so can't upload the photos that we took during the night without a cord) and getting in a line and then walking through to the event room while getting photos taken - kind of like the countries at the Olympics opening ceremony - just with less people and unfortunately (coz we weren't in NZ!) hundreds of thousands of people taking photos of us! Was a good night though, heard some speeches, had some food, drinks (non alcoholic obviously) and chats with other teams etc.

As soon as it finished, we bolted to the first bus (it was about 10.30, 11pm by this stage and we are tired as) and got on and then left for hotel - thankfully didn't have to wait around too long. Got no idea what time our games are the next day yet - they hadn't done the draw for the Classic Plate that Paul and I were in or the Conso plate that Bryce was in - all we knew is that Lance was playing at 12:45 I think, till the next morning...

We set a time to wake up and Anthony rang us then and said could go back to sleep coz we did have enough time - weren't playing til 12! (thanks organisers for the notice) didn't know who playing or anything either - makes for a pretty rough preparation for a game.

Paul started it off against Andrew Schnell - probably the toughest guy in the classic plate (I mentioned him just before, lost to Sherbini - if I can add an entry from today (which is Friday) this guy is down to the last 4 in the Classic plate and I don't think he has dropped a set apart from the one that he lost to Paul in this game - was a close 4, unfortunately Paul just missed out on the win - was a massive rally in the 4th that I can't really explain but it involved a ridiculous amount of running and retrieving on Pauls part - and at the end of it he was absolutely stuffed! Was a good effort though - everyone would agree!

Straight after this, Lance is on against Indian 6th seed Aditya Jagtap for his spot in the last 16 - which I missed (see below why..) but Lance didn't quite make it - close scores but unfortunately no result today - was pretty disappointing for Lance and for all of us, we all wanted him to do well :( so day 2 is getting pretty depressing so far!

At the same time as Lance's match, and the reason I wasn't there supporting him is because we had a game time clash! I had to play the top player from Wales Sam Fenwick - and lost in 3 (I'm gonna blame Bryce's coaching in between games... joking, thanks Bryce I did appreciate it sorry I couldn't win for you!). Was mega close and I probably should of got there but was one of those days - so that was me out as well - now all that is left is to get ourselves amped for teams which we are all really excited about - its what we came for!

Pretty upsetting for the boys to be all out of the tournament, but Bryce still had a game to come at 3ish against a Welsh boy as well. Unfortunately he battled out another huge five setter - and managed to lose in a really close tussle that could have gone either way - so the guys were all a bit down - but time to refocus now for teams event, do a bit of training and watch some good squash! Fortunately the South African ref had a soft spot for Bryce and her words are that "he has the biggest heart she has ever seen" - so thats positive! I'll try and get a photo of them together in the next couple of days so watch this space!!!!

OTHER SQUASH MATCHES! Have been pretty decent! It's great to watch real good match ups - some of the highlight matches so far were Nick Sachvie from Canada (17-32 seed) take out 5th seeded Danish Atlas Khan of Pakistan in a massive 5 set grueller - was a gutsy effort and great to watch!! Charles Sharpes of England vs Egyptian (Sherin, can't remember first names!) in the last 16 games to make the final 8 as well - which Charles Sharpes took out in 4. Today (Friday - day 3 of competition) we went to the big shopping centre (it really is big...) and watched the quarter finals on the glass court. The end result being 3 Egyptians in the top 4 and one Pakistani - the guy that beat me - the other survivor.

• (1) Amr Khaled Khalifa def Aditya Jagtap of India 3 - 0
• (9-16) Marwan el Shorbagy (brother of Mohammed el Shorbagy - 2008 and 2009 winner) def (17-32) Ali Ashraf El Karargy of Egypt 3 - 0
• (9-16) Farhan Zaman (Pakistan) def (17-32) Mohammed El Sherbini (Egypt) 3 - 1
  
• (2) Ali Farag def (8) Charles Sharpes (England) 3 - 0

Funny story time, this made me not understand why we chose to go up the cable cars - thanks Ecuador engineering! Where the glass court is in the mall (it's 4 stories) there is a stand behind it for people to sit and watch the game - quite a small gallery but it's all good - anyhow we were sitting in the gallery and it's pretty rickety - untill between the 3rd and 4th match (after Zaman and Sherbini played - as Sharpes and Farag were warming up) we heard a big bang and a massive squeal/screams... me and Bryce are thinking OH NO, someone has fallen through (it's pretty high) and everyones just bolted off the seats in a matter of seconds...

Turns out no one was hurt - but the steel beam that was holding up one side snapped in half and folded over onto itself so all the seats caved in and were lucky not to just snap completely. I took some photos of the mayhem!!!

Everyone got to watch the end of the game from around the different levels of the mall - luckily the referees still got a seat...

Well, that's all I have for now. Tomorrow is going to be a big day - training at 10.30am and then again at 4.30 and we were thinking to mix it up in between we are going to do the thing that you would expect anyone coming to Ecuador would want to do at some stage - going to see the centre of the earth!! There is a spot 20 minutes from the club we are playing at just out of Quito where there is ZERO longitude, and ZERO lattitude - this is known as the dead centre of the earth!! It is also (obviously) on the equator so we will be able to stand on the equator. Really looking forward to the experience - on one side, the water apparently goes one way, on the other side, the water spins the other way! Weirdly enough... in the middle it goes straight down! I'm not sure how it works, but I'll try get photos.

I'll also try be on this more to update more regularly, sorry to keep you all waiting, this one has been a long time in the making!!!

Hope you aren't all too upset with us losing - we were all disappointed but we can only refocus now on teams event - seedings are done tomorrow so fingers crossed everything goes well for us, we'll see how everything pans out and let you know.

Thanks very much, and thanks for reading if you have made it this far...............
:)

It's bedtime over here so I can't say much, only that I'll update more tomorrow - internet was down yesterday but I shall do my best to catch up. First games in the morning, had a team talk tonight and a "cocktail" party (don't worry, no cocktails..) to informally welcome us all and wish us luck - tomorrow night is opening ceremony as well.

Bryce is up first so think of him and all of us if you want before you go to sleep coz when you wake up, hopefully we are all through to round 2.

Quick update on something that has changed - 2 people withdrew from the draw last minute and they altered it so that Lance has a bye now instead of a Venezuelan - so he is AUTOMATICALLY through to the top 64, well done Lance! Well played mate, good job! So his first game is at 4pm here if I remember - which is 9am NZ time on Thursday.

Cheers guys

Day 3

_____________

Wednesday - 1st Round Games (Round of 128)

• Bryce - 9:00am vs Arjun Gupta (Canada) (2am Thursday)
  
• Lance - 9.45am vs Alejandro Suarez (Venezuela) (2.45am Thursday)
  
• Michael - 11:15am vs Daniel Prato (Venezuela) (4:15am Thursday)
  
• Paul - 12:45pm vs Sebastian Larrea (Ecuador) (5:45am Thursday)

Make sure you are all awake, ok?

Today we had a gym session which quickly turned into a court sprint session again as the treadmills didn't work properly - which was all good. Worked really really hard - here's some photos of us going!

Just to show how hard altitude is/how hard we are pushing it up here - I've been made to upload a flattering photo that you don't have to look at if you don't want... (Don't look at it!) thanks Anthony for the photography! Was a tough session!!! Getting stronger though each time...

Who's that?!?

Went down for another training session after a couple of hours resting, at the club - was tough work, but only our second games we've played here so it'll definitely get easier to play! Watched some other teams again - it's quite cool coming from NZ and not getting out too much to see all the different styles of the game!!! Each country has their own unique styles and tactics - is going to make for interesting games, I think!

Not too much else to report - went and had steak for dinner... Not sure if anyone wanted to know that but it was good!

Tomorrow we are playing USA (a friendly match) just to get us in amongst some other players and get used to playing different styles and (hopefully) winning! Should be good, we are all looking forward to the little challenge! So many different people here which is pretty cool.

Still amazed at the lack of care taken to do with road rules - no one indicates, everyone speeds, red lights just make it more fun for drivers (I think)... Interesting place :) enjoying it!

Will report again tomorrow, thanks for reading!
Cheers