Day 3: Saturday, August 12th

Though it rained overnight, we woke up to a beautiful day of blue skies and temperature in the mid to high 60s. Today we are off to St Mary's Stadium in Southampton to watch opening weekend of Premier League action.
First, the kids are up and off to breakfast. Everyone seems a little more acclimated to the time difference now and are bright eyed and ready for the day.
After breakfast, everyone went down to the pool for a recovery session of swimming to stretch the legs out after their double training session yesterday.

After an hour of swimming, water volley ball and water polo, everyone piled back to the dorm to shower and relax before we boarded the bus for the game.

The group then boarded the coach bus to make the roughly two hour each way trip to St. Mary's Stadium in Southampton to watch them play Swansea in their opening Premier League match for this season. Though the ride is two hours, the route winds through scenic roads in southern England driving by Arundel Castle, sheep, cows and horse pastures. Rolling fields of wheat, Animals and general English countryside spread out before the kids eyes.

Off the bus in Southampton, we all got a packed lunch and walked around the stadium taking in the sights before heading in to our seats.

Our group took over a section of the Chapel Stand behind the south goal. Behind each seat, each ticket holder got a clapper, fun for the game but maybe not for the bus or the dorm! We shall see who loses it first 😀

We all got to our seats in time to see a bit of the warm up and see the players announced and walk out into the stadium.

 The kids soaked in every second of the atmosphere, fans, chants and English style of play. At halftime, we got up to explore under the stands and get snacks. Most of the boys tried the giant hot dogs and sausages available.

Besides a missed free header from Swansea's 6'5" striker Abraham in the fifteenth minute, Southampton dominated play using the width with success and peppering the goalie with 28 shots. Unfortunately, they could not find the back of the net and the game ends in a 0-0 deadlock. All in all, even without any scoring, it was an exciting game to watch.

Back on the bus, the ride home was still lively but much quieter with many taking naps.
It was straight to dinner upon arrival at Ardingly College and back to the dorm for an hour of down time before bed.
Tomorrow is our second excursion of the weekend, as we head to Portsmouth to tour the HMS Victory and explore the historic dockyard and waterfront area.