Day 6

Day 6, either the mosque tanked with the morning alarm or we finally slept through it. We headed to the club at 8:30 and we had a good practice prior to Scott's match. We were somewhat taken aback by two things. One, the sun was out, two the court was dry. This proved a problem as scandy pointed out there was no excuse to not in position for our shots. After practice we went to watch fellow Brit jathan Malik take on his Ukrainian opponent. This was followed by yet another lunch of chicken, rice and chips (again). Scholesy then entered the court they call court central to take on his Spanish opponent. Scott Clayton excellent tennis in patches but a few to many unforced errors at crucial times meant he went down 7-5 6-4. James said "Scott put in a decent performance and was happy with how he played, hopefully we can build on this next week in Monastir". We returned to the hole-tel.

Day 5

Alarms were not needed as a call of prayer decided to wake up Scholesy and Scandy whilst Mitch slept happily. Scandel decided to skip breakfast as extra beauty sleep was clearly needed. We arrived at the club for 8:30 to hit some balls on a wet court again. Mitch and Scholesy decided to head back to the hole-tel for an extra nap whilst our heroic leader Scandel stayed as Beth was first on.

Scholesy and Mitch returned from their power nap meeting Scandel in the same position as they left him 3 hours previous. Play had not started ( yet again). Beth finally arrived on court against some Romanian. Unfortunately Beth went down 7-6 6-0. These were James's thoughts on the match "Beth fought hard and showed good composure the whole way through. Once the Romanian won the first set and got her nose ahead in the second, she played some very good tennis".  It was then time to go back to the lounge for a bit of cheeky twitter. Mitch was up shortly after and played well despite going down 6-4 6-4 to the 6th seeded Slovakian. James said "Toby can take great heart from how he played and demonstrated that he truly belongs at this level". There was then a 4 hour wait for Scholesy to walk on to Centre. With the temperature plummeting hopes were high for Scott. However we were wrong... Again, the ref made a cheeky decision at 8.30 pm to call off all remaining boys matches until tomorrow.

We then felt most at ease with our taxi driver telling us in French 4 Libyan gunman with kalashnikov's had been shot dead only 5 kilometres from Sfax. This could account for the heightened enthusiasm from the locals for watching the news prior to leaving the club. Thankfully we have returned to our hole-tel safely. Dinner threw us as vegetables appeared on the plate not rice. However they had been boiled for so long there cannot have been much goodness left in them. Scandy will return to his room shortly probably to find every window in his room open (as in every other day), no heating and a sheet for comfort.

One for Cockers - should you be considering Sfax as a potential honeymoon destination we highly recommend you think again.

Hope everyone is well back at the ranch.

Citizen, Scholesy an Scandy

Day 4

6am scandy's alarm set for 8am wasn't required due to his room conveniently being adjacent to the mosque. He can reliably inform you all that first prayer was at 6:05. Due to the hospitable surroundings Scandy found it difficult to get the much needed beauty sleep he needs, clearly he has not had much beauty sleep recently due to his new arrival.

8:30, the excitement of breakfast soon came to disappointment as the same stale pastries and croissants was on the menu yet again. Scholesy, Citizen and Scandy made there way to the club for practice on another damp court. Beth arrived half way through and clearly had a dilemma that we had a bet on... Would she at the end of her practice walk the 15 metres required ( all be it in the wrong direction to which her posse had gone) and say hello to the people she trains with day in day out. Unfortunately Scandy and Scholesy were correct in their assessment that beth clearly being pulled in many directions went off with her gang. We returned to the hole-tel to sample the delights it has to offer during the day, Scandy went for an orange juice, Citizen and Scholesy did there mob&stab. We returned to the club at 1 before rain yet again delayed play. You'll be all pleased to know that Beth redeemed herself by coming and spending quality time with the people she really loves... Scandy, Citizen and Scholesy.

Lunch caused us some concern as we were slightly concerned as rice had been subsituted for seriously over cooked pasta, al dente it wasn't .

After sitting down, Andel focused hard on maintaining his 145 IQ by churning out some soduku. After loitering around and watching some Brits battle out qualies (qualies still to be completed) the invertible occurred when the ref called play off for the day (which we called the night before). It was back to the hole-tel for some mob&stab from mitch and Scholesy and upto the room for Scandy to digest his goodies (vitamin pills). After a shower we headed out onto the streets of Sfax to get a smoothie and began playing the name game. Scandy came first followed by Scholesy and Citizen. We soon headed to dinner were Scandy went off piste ordering fish, and the boys sticked with the usual! Following dinner, the coin game was played were Mitchell dominated resulting the other two giving up!

Unfortunately Tunisia just Lost to Gabon in the cup of nations and we are now looking forward to another fun packed evening and anticipation is high that tomorrow we can hit balls in anger!

Day 3

We woke up needless to say with stiff necks, a problem we would look to rectify later in the day. Breakfast involved taking what was left and making do! Due to the general feeling of hygiene within the living environment, we went across the road to the 5 star pharmacy to get some antibacterial hand gel. We headed off in another yellow trotters independent traders 3 wheeler to the club to see if it would live upto the expectations we had already embraced in Tunisia! Sadly, it did! Our day was brightened considerably when we bumped into Beth who was also out here with the lta. Due to the overnight rain and an inability for the courts to dry, we hit on a slightly damp, very slippery courts, cockers would have been proud as we needed our core strength to keep us upright. Practice finished at one and we went off for lunch. Chicken,rice and chips. With sign in looming and the thought of last round qualies beginning soon, we thought we had some entertainment to keep us amused. However, the heavens opened leading to the club being under water literaly by about two feet! Having signed in and Mitchell's receipt calling him citizen Mitchell, we left for the 10minute taxi bak to the holetel. We were wrong...... Again.

The rain had caused the main road outside to flood, which saw us walking up and down for 30minutes before three Tunisian players who had hailed a taxi only to see it taken by Scandel... Locker room power right there!!! We were then turned into Tomtoms to direct our taxi back to are final destination. A good effort seeing we had been there once. The evening was spent at the Carrefour supermarche as we had to make sure Scandy got his daily dosage of goodies ( we will leave it upto you to decide what we mean). Great thinking from Bergerac an citizen Mitchell who noticed home store equipment, decided to purchase two pillows to relieve the sore necks. We have just finished dinner, chicken, rice, chips (a theme is developing). looking forward to lunch tomorrow....

Order of play is out, long day ahead for our heroic leader, Beth on second, Mitchell on 5th and Scholesy with the night match. Scandy is happy with the goodies ahead of tomorrow.

Day 2

5:30am, Scholes and Mitch strolled into the reception to be met by Scandy whom being chatted up by a woman, she must not have woken up properly! BA were there usual helpful selves penalising Mitchell for brining the whole section of cereal bars from tesco's ( every little helps).  having rearranged the 2kg Mitch was over we were ready to embrace the delights of Tunisia. Scott unfortunately saw himself sat next to a pensioner with the IQ not above room temperature and a very loud voice. After collecting baggage speedily with, hopes were high of making the 1:10pm train to Sfax, we could have made it but  we were met outside as if we had David Beckham with us not just Scholesey. After battering them off like mosquitos we found ourselves getting mugged by 5 quid in a taxi on our way to the station in Tunis. Annoyingly we missed the train by 10 minutes which resulted in us waiting 4 hours for the next train. Scholesy being from Jersey felt like a fish out of water and was very aware of any sudden movements - luckily he was sat on the floor next to bouncer like Scandell who had been hitting the gym ferociously 2 weeks before just in case of this eventuality. Having paid £8 for our 1st class ticket, Tunisian trains run on time unlike in England. Unfortunately for Mitch, he was sat next to someone with a liking for pills and medicine.

Having got off the train at Sfax, health and safety didn't seem to matter as we crossed the track in front of the ready to depart train in order to leave the premises. A taxi ride in a car with no working boot and clearly no MOT, we found ourselves at the 3* accommodation they call Les Arcades. Clearly the 3* were awarded due to a bank next door, a pharmacy and a sandbag for a pillow. After sampling dinner, chicken, rice, chips, it was fair to say a michelin star was not around the corner. We decided after a long day to hit the sack, however to help us fall asleep, serie A and AC Milan in particular did the job with their lack of adventures football.

Day 1

Mitch and Scandy pre booked there train, the 18:13 to gatwick to be met with the news the train was cancelled. We hoped this wasn't the start of things to come. However knowing that scott aka Paul Scholes was at the other end it boosted our moral! We arrived at the hotel in gatwick for some sleep for the grind ahead.

Our recent training camp was a great experience. Craig Proctor took 6 academy players (Ross, Titch, Flo, Hamish, Oli and Lewis) for 2 hard day’s work to the NTC in Roehampton. We arrived on Wednesday in time for left-overs at dinner which was horrid! Thankfully breakfast the next morning was better. We played loads and loads of tennis which was great and we had some good fun too.

We followed tennis with fitness, and then after our 50^th shower of the day headed for the games room for the most competitive part of the day – table tennis! On the final morning we had to be at breakfast for 7:00am precisely, and for every minute late the consequence was a 2 court suicide. All of us but Flo made it on time and as the minutes ticked by one of us went to see if she was awake. No.  BUT, after her wake-up call she did manage to get to breakfast by 7:06, so just the 12 court suicide for her then!

We had 2 final sessions on court in-between watching Murray take on Djokovic (how close?) and Flo do 6 of the 12. A final ‘jog’ around Richmond Park finished us all off and a set of exhausted players (and one coach) packed up and headed for home. An excellent trip all round. Big thanks to Craig for keeping us all in order and for 2 days of fab tennis. When’s the next one?!

Watch TEAMBATH-MCTA player, Scott Clayton talking about his experience practicing with Novak Djokovic at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in O2 Arena.

I joined Team Bath MCTA to gain more experience (Coaching) of high level performance player development. From day 1 I noticed a vibrant energetic atmosphere within the academy, the players were highly motivated, disciplined and focused and the coaching team were highly professional, their communication with the players was exceptional.

Throughout the week I continued to gain new angles and teaching points to develop my current players, a huge learning curve came from understanding the fitness requirements of a high performance player alongside the technical and tactical aspects of the game. The highlight of the week was the the opportunity to work alongside David Sammel and Jim Edgar, their experience and proven records are second to none at the highest level.

Huge thanks to Alex Cockram in the Strength & Conditioning team for your help"

Dan