Sporting trips – like the half-term visits to Cape Town,(above) and Dubai (below) – provide huge pleasure, lasting memories and personal growth to Harrodians who join them.
Arash Soleimani has an ambitious wish list of key attributes in mind for the perfect autumn sports tour destination: ‘You need good sports infrastructure, an exciting and distinctive local sports culture and good teams to play,’ says Harrodian’s Head of Football. ‘Ideally you also need warm weather and exciting things to do and places to enjoy when you’re not playing or training.’
It's clear that the 63 Harrodians – 42 footballing boys and 21 netballing girls and 9 male and female sports staff – enjoyed all these ingredients in abundance during their six-day trip to Dubai over half term. Both groups took part in training sessions and matches staged in state-of-the art facilities competing both with high quality local sides – such as Dubai City for the boys and Dubai Desert Girls Netball Club for the girls – as well as teams on tour including our local neighbours, Reeds School. Off the pitch they tackled diverse attractions including the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, the Great White Mosque, a Speed Boat Tour at the Dubai Marina, a Jeep Safari and the Wild Wadi water parks.
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It all added up to a tour described by one year 11 pupil as ‘the best six days of my life.’ and Mr Soleimani believes the impact will be lasting. ‘Lasting memories were made,’ he says. ‘Relationships were deepened and bonds strengthened and that’s great both for individuals and the team spirit too.’
Relationships were deepened and bonds strengthened and that’s great both for individuals and team spirit too
Arash Soleimani, Head of Harrodian Football
Head of Netball, Ms Pullen was equally impressed with the maturity and the spirit of camaraderie on show: ‘‘The girls all bonded on and off the court and they behaved impeccably and were a pleasure to be around,’ she says. ‘The trip was fantastic from start to finish.’
To see a gallery of pictures of both sports tours, please follow this link
Meanwhile much further south, 31 of Harrodian’s Under 14 and Under 15 hockey players were embarking on a similar journey of discovery. Their 10-day South African tour took them to Cape Town where they trained and played with two club sides and two local schools. The teams were consistently well matched and the games close, with two Harrodians, Rosie and Isla, distinguishing themselves by each scoring four times in a single game.
What most struck Head of Hockey Ms Hazel Lovegrove, however, was the generous and friendly spirit of competition they encountered. ‘Home supporters welcomed us with open arms and often cheered our players as enthusiastically as their own,’ she says. ‘The players quickly built strong bonds with each other and exchanged contact details. Our opponents even shared their chants and taught them to our girls.’ (above) (You can see a video of their joint chanting session here)
Beyond the playing fields the girls enjoyed some of the memorable wildlife and cultural experiences that the Cape has to offer including climbing Table Mountain, visiting Seal Island, the penguins of Boulder beach, an Ostrich Farm and a safari day when they saw Rhinos, Elephants, Giraffes, Zebras and, of course, Springboks.
We wanted the girls to experience the passion of a sports-mad nation and we certainly got that. But the cultural experience we enjoyed was so rich that it became the trip of a lifetime
Hazel Lovergrove, Head of Harrodian Hockey
‘We wanted the girls to experience the passion of a sports-mad nation and we certainly got that,’ says Ms Lovegrove. ‘But the cultural experience we enjoyed was so rich. It was the trip of a lifetime.’ Ms Lovegrove was also thrilled by the way Harrodian’s Year 13s and 14s conducted themselves. ‘We felt we were in the company of a group of mature young women and we heard nothing but compliments about them’ she says. ‘They were superb.'