When we arrived Ryan and the girls from Edendale school were waiting for us.  As well as the eight girls who have been chosen to come to Lurgan there were eleven new recruits.  The coaching team quickly adapted to this unexpected development and within a few minutes the new girls were receiving  one to one coaching from some of the Lurgan party.

The girls from Zamasa had been slightly delayed and arrived at the grounds, singing and obviously delighted to meet up with some old friends.

By mid morning there were several groups scattered over the pitch ranging from coaching for the sixteen future Lurgan tourists ( eight from Edendale and eight from Zamasa), the intermediate group and the beginners group to a group of five future umpires.  These umpires include the two teachers and three Biehl Foundation staff and one of the first instructions they received was – ‘don’t take any lip from the coaches.’

In the middle of all this the TV cameras arrived and shot a piece for local children’s programming.  This involved interviews with Eric, Zane from Biehl, one of the Zamasa girls and our spokeswoman, Miss Katie Webster.

To finish off the morning there was a game with the Lurgan team taking on the Cape Town girls and the home town team certainly impressed the visitors.

Next up was a visit to the parliament buildings in the city centre, the Lurgan tourists still in playing kit.  We were shown through the Old Assembly Chamber, the heart of the old apartheid based government and saw where the Prime Minister was assassinated in 1966.  This was the chamber where legislation ended apartheid in 1994 and the room in which the decision to release Nelson Mandela was taken.

We then visited the chambers where the equivalent of the House of Lords sits and finally where the current  400 strong National Assembly takes place.

Because the weather was so good we decided to go up to the top of Table Mountain, taking the cable car, a few tourists conquering fears to ascend the 1200 metres of cable to the top, over 1000 metres above the Cape Town seashore.  Check out the gallery for some of the views.

After  three and a half hours of coaching under the warm Cape Town sun, the parliament  visit and the breathtaking Table Mountain what better way to relax than in the hotel hot tub.  That’s where they are now.