DOMESTIC Tour roundup 2018

Domestic Tour Roundup 2018
After almost 4 weeks of spreading rumors that domestic tour 2018 was going to Bath, Liverpool, Plymouth, and various other UK locations, 39 of us hopped on a coach heading for the one and only Cardiff.
The weekend started as we checked into the hostel, hydrated ourselves with some refreshing grape juice and took off to Pryzm for the night.
On Saturday morning we had breakfast at the local spoons (obviously) and those who didn’t need extra beauty sleep visited the national museum in Cardiff, where we soaked up the history and culture- or if you were Nick complained about being tired the whole time and fell asleep in the children’s area.
We regrouped for a much-needed lunch at PizzaExpress and headed back to the hostel for tour circle, chaired by Ganney, Gigi and special appearances from me. Our theme was ‘noughties’ and our members did not disappoint with their costumes, with outrageous wigs, a lot of effort, and more face paint than a year 6 disco (beats most of my pop costumes which consist of a piece of paper pinned to a t shirt).
We then made our way to Soda, Cardiff, which I had been informed was an honorable student location for their version of circle. Imagine my dismay when it turns out that on weekends it’s the Cardiff version of House in Leamington, the drinks are expensive, and there are people in suits, dresses and heels who are definitely judging us for our jeans and a nice top look. Regardless, we had a lovely night, and all made it back to the hostel in one piece.
On Sunday morning we groggily made our way to Cardiff Metropolitan university- eager to actually play some hockey. Although we were late, hungover, had no keeper or keeper kit, Cardiff Met were super nice to us and seemed pretty enthusiastic at the idea of a mixed match. They lent us a keeper kit-which we later found out belonged to an international German player- and had the debacle of who was going to play keeper. With the words “Rads, do it, it’ll be funny” the decision was made and yours truly fumbled their way into the kit. The first half went pretty poorly, we were down 3-0 and decided the best course of action was probably for someone who can actually defend properly to be in goal, so Billy took one for the team and replaced me.
Although we didn’t win- in fact we conceded another two goals- the team stayed strong and Seb scored us a spirit-lifting goal. To be perfectly honest, it was a solid effort from a team that were hydrating themselves with shots 9 hours earlier and at the end of the day, we had fun and that’s what matters.
We then trekked to a pub which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere to wait for the coach to take us home. The coach ended up arriving 3 hours late, but this wasn’t a problem as the locals in the pub took it upon themselves to provide entertainment such as arm wrestles and press up challenges, with everyone keeping spirits high with the classic UWMXDHC chants every now and again.
The stress of organizing tour and keeping track of 38 students was like no other but weekend we had was definitely worth it. Special shout out to the exec for being absolute stars. I can’t wait to see what international tour brings.

Peace, Hugs and Tour Love,
Rads xoxo