After a great night at the prom, we had an early start on Saturday morning as our flight departed from rainy England at lunch time. We met Jorge Wilton, who trains at Reeds  in London who was also doing the ITF, at Gatwick airport. A 7 hour grind of a flight resulted in us watching 2 films, the Adjustment Bureau and Unknown. We landed in hot and humid Bermuda at 6pm Saturday night.

After waiting an hour for what supposed to be an organised taxi, we took a cab which in the end, the driver was very friendly. As we were soon to find out, the country as a whole was helpful and sociable. A 30 minute drive was enough to show us the beauty of the country, until..... We arrived at THE HOLE (Warwick Regiment Camp) our hotel for the week. We were met by the monitor and staff of the camp who eventually showed us the ROOM. This room consisted of 26 other boys sleeping on 13 bunk beds. At this point we all became seriously apprehensive about our belongings and sleep. We soon found out that our sleep was going to be challenging as lights didn’t go out until 11pm. Even after this,  people were still making noise, keeping others awake.

After a frankly horrific night sleep, we were dreading the breakfast. But to our surprise it became something we look forward to. Treated with fresh exotic fruit, bagels and bacon, both of which are not supposed to be on our diet, we teed off as we didn’t know what the food throughout the day would be like.   After getting the minibus to the ‘WER Joel tennis stadium’, the three of us took to the courts for practise. It took us a while to get into a rhythm as the courts were rapid ‘Vienna ’ and high bouncing due to the extreme heat. To add to this the balls were pellets. Through our sessions and matches we lived off iced water and Gatorade (said in an American accent). We relaxed for the rest of the day attempting to connect to appalling WIFI. At 4pm we had to attend the opening ceremony representing GBR. This was painful as it was very time-consuming. We just wanted to hit, sign-in and go back to the hole to sleep. Dinner was another surprising factor as it was edible.  We went back to the hole awaiting the 11pm lights out which was an epic 4 hours away.

After another terrible night sleep, it was time to get in the zone for our matches. Samm had to play a Canadian qualifier, Jorge was to play a Russian qualifier and Toby scheduled to play the next day against an American rafa. Samm went on after eating the spectacular lunch, KFC, which the club provided as part of hospitality. Oh Dear! From the start we knew it was going to be another one of Samm’s grind. After trading breaks he took the first set 6-3 playing some rather impressive aggressive tennis. a setback saw Samm go an early break down, he clawed it back and saw himself serving for the match at 6-5. Losing serve Samm went into a tiebreak losing it 7-4. At 4-4 in the third the set had been on serve. Samm started to feel the heat and humidity and was feeling the impact. He got broken and was looking at an exit. As Mr Butler does, he ground out the next game with superb support from Jorge and Toby. Looking again at defeat, he saw himself 5-6 0-40 he toughed it using Butler’s antics to frustrate the opponent, losing 6 in the third in 4 hours, was a shock to the British boys and showed the actual standard of the tournament. He was devastated, ‘isledor’ (chappers).  Jorge came upon a tough opponent and lost in a tight 6-4 6-3. Toby found that evening difficult as both boys were very down. But then the news of the trip came, as we met the mother of a boy who played tennis at Milfield, Jack Keyes. We went back to the hole for the very last time visiting the beach, stumbling across a Portuguese Man Of War, a deadly jellyfish, something we did not know at the time and finally collected our belongings.

After the first Unbelievable night sleep of the trip due to the kindness of the Keyes family. Toby was the only one playing singles on Tuesday whilst the others prepared for doubles. Going on at 1pm, Toby played an American rafa ranked roughly the same as Toby. On the high bouncy courts this saw Toby play most balls from above shoulder height, something unusual for Toby. The first set saw Toby holding serve comfortably and creating chances as he clinched it 7-5 getting the pump out. A second set of reduced unforced errors saw Toby roll through 6-3. After a lengthy shower to get rid of the litres of sweat, Samm and Toby went on to play doubles against the Canadian pair of Oliver Gingras (Samm’s singles opponent) and his partner. Playing a solid first set winning it 6-2, the second set saw them having to be taken to a tiebreak after missing chances that could have been costly. Eventually they won 6-2 7-6, progressing through to quarters. A solid day all round as Jorge also won his doubles.

In the last 16, Toby faced an American fourth seed called Carter Lin, apparently top 10 in USA for his age.  After losing a tight first set 6-4, Toby regrouped and played some inspiring tennis winning the second 6-3 using his leftie serve to maximum advantage on the quick courts.  A tight third saw Toby narrowly losing 6-3 in the third with one break. This loss saw Toby and Samm have their eyes heavily on the doubles title. After another great performance Samm and Toby sealed a semi final winning   6-2 7-6 again not taking their chances in the second set. We topped off the day with a very sociable night with the Keyes and friends (Gregory Kumar).

Semi finals was approaching, we were playing Jorge and his partner from Jamaica. This was our best match yet, with us finding some outrageous doubles. We won 6-3 6-1. The day just got better and better as due to the early doubles match it allowed us to have an exciting day of exploring.  We were lucky enough, to play a round of golf at The Port Royal course, home of the PGA Grand Slam of Golf the equivalent to the ATP world tennis finals. A challenging par 71 course was daunting for Samm as it was his first 18 hole course. He posted a 51over par score (not bad for a first). Toby on the other hand was determined to post a competitive score as he regularly plays. A solid 11over par score was happy enough for Toby on the crazily stunning course looking over the turquoise sea. One of the best days of our lives was finalised with a meal at ‘home’ with James and Charlie Keyes and Gregory Kumar. This provided an interesting evening as we had never met two people with so much knowledge.

Finals day was upon us, it was Toby’s third doubles final in a row so we were hoping for the phrase ‘third time lucky’ to come true. After a good night’s sleep we had a filling breakfast then headed off to the club for practice. Samm was getting seriously worried at this point as Toby’s volleys did not seem to be up to his usual standard. This was not the case in the match as both players got off to a flying start winning the first set 6-4, playing the large points ‘clinically’ (Toby’s favourite word for the week in doubles). We used this momentum to get a 4-0 lead in the second as the title was in touching distance. NOT THE CASE. A few chances went begging as James Elliot and Jordon Daigle clawed it back to 4-4 with Samm’s game going off the boil leaving Toby finding it hard to control his emotions (without showing it). We lost that set 6-4. Going for a toilet break to regroup and regain energy for the championship breaker to decide our fate. At 2-2 in the breaker a long point looked out of our reach as James hit a net cord over Toby’s racket at the net which was going a few feet wide, to our shock it’s path changed as Toby shouted out ‘oh my god’ in disbelief. The point was lost until...........the work of the S&C coaches paid off as Samm chased down the ball from one tramline to the other, sliding into the shot (sorry Chappers), after staring at the ball for a second or so. This was followed by a drive volley flying long as shock arouse around the stadium. This was to be the turning point in the breaker as they only went on to win 2 more point as Toby and Samm became Victorious!!! LARGE. So due to Samm’s high-quality serving and solid play and Toby’s returning and magical net play we were crowned champions.

Our day could not get much better until we headed out in the Keyes family boat as we went and relaxed in the bays of Bermuda. We were then very kindly treated to dinner by Gregory Kumar at elbow beach resort, a tourist attraction overlooking the white sandy beach and ocean. We came to a disagreement with Gregory as we wanted to treat the Keyes to dinner to show our appreciation for everything they had done for us that week, this was not allowed, and so we came to a conclusion that we would take them out for breakfast the following morning.

The last day saw us to be lucky enough to go out on the boat, we were on the way to some of the islands prettiest waters when James Keyes kindly asked us if we wanted to have a shot at water skiing. James went first and showed us how to do it making it look so easy, Toby was up next (a first time for him) showing some impressive range in his squat (much better than usual, cockers) as he fought to stay up sliding all over the wake. Samm was up next, he has done it a few times before and gave Toby a lesson. Charlie Keyes casually cruised along the water showing everyone how it was done.  A pleasant relaxing day around Bermuda was extremely enjoyable.

A mixed week finished on a high as we then made our way to the airport..............unfortunately.

We would like to pay a huge thank you to Laura, James and Charlie Keyes for hosting us for the week and saving us from the ‘hole’ and to Kumar for providing some enjoyable times, so we THANK YOU! You made our week.

From Toby Mitchell and Samm Butler