From: The Racketeer 48, January 2003
Fun in the Sun
by Anita [Jones] & Diane Fieldhouse
OCTOBER 2002 saw four of the MPTC ladies venturing out to La Manga in Spain. For those of you who haven't heard of it, La Manga is a purpose-built tennis and golf complex 60 miles south of Alicante on the Costa Calida. With 28 tennis courts, winter sunshine, a fantastic villa (all mod cons) and pool what more could any keen tennis player ask for?
Unfortunately, due to our late booking, the highly acclaimed tennis academy was full, but private lessons were still available (we are still talking about tennis here). Our daily lessons were only 45 minutes long but we quickly discovered that it was 45 minutes hard slog, with our coaches, Gabrielle and Tim keeping us on our toes. They tried hard to perfect our topspin backhands and keep us at the back of the slow clay courts. However, our natural instinct was to chip and charge on all possible occasions, much to their dismay.
To punish us, they devised a tough training regime which involved a chair in the middle of the baseline. We had to start by sitting on the chair, then getting up and running for forehands and backhands, sitting down again between each shot. A killer for the thigh muscles after about 30 seconds. Diane and Anita soon found the answer to this - get to the court before the coach and hide the chair. It worked.
Coaching and tennis aside, we found time to explore local markets, returning to England with leather handbags and purses, hundreds of cheap cigarettes, Christmas tablecloths and numerous items of tennis attire. All essential of course, and at half the price you would pay in England, they were bargains not to be missed. Luckily, Diane was equipped with her Spanish phrasebook and haggled magnificently in a 'Spanglais' kind of way.
After the hustle and bustle of shopping and sight-seeing expeditions, we relaxed by visiting local 'guide book recommended' restaurants. Elaine did her best to educate us all (with limited success) in the regional Mediterranean fare. The local vino (tinto and blanco) went down well but some of the more exotic sea food delicacies were beyond our pallets (no breadcrumbs!). We must at this point give credit to Elaine's home cooking which was much appreciated by the rest of us as were Debbie's early morning cups of tea.
However, the holiday was not without its mishaps. On the first night we couldn't get into our villa; two days later we locked ourselves out completely, the next day someone reversed into our car. And then came the horse-riding catastrophe.
To cut a long story short we convinced ourselves that having had three riding lessons 20 years ago, we were proficient enough to be able to gallop along the beach with waves crashing and the wind in our hair. The reality was that the horses were enormous (at least 14.5 hands in equestrian terms), the owner of the stables was a very scary lady indeed and we discovered that our riding skills were somewhat lacking. Add to this a menacing loose horse, barking Alsatians, 80 degrees heat, uneven terrain and horses that soon sensed our inexperience: it all started to become a bit of a nightmare.
This culminated in Diane being thrown from her horse as it made a break for freedom, quickly followed by Anita doing the fastest dismount ever as her horse decided to take a roll in the sand. Despite bruised ribs, crushed pride and Anita having had the fright of her life, both girls managed to bravely remount, mainly due to the fact that the scary lady was screaming blue murder at us in French. How undignified. Debbie (who could ride) tried her best to disown us whilst laughing hysterically at our equestrian antics. After three hours and saddle sore to say the least, we finally returned to the stables. Never have we been so pleased to put our feet on solid ground and return to our trusty Nissan Micra.
By the time we arrived back at our villa, Diane was ashen faced, having breathing difficulties and starting to go into shock. Whilst we were sympathetic, we did not want to be late for the start of our afternoon tennis lesson. In fact, Anita was rather put out that she would have to endure a 45 minute lesson alone. Diane did manage to shuffle her way to the court side, doing her best Ozzy Osbourne impression, to show support as Anita was run off her feet by Gabrielle.
Other events included searching unsuccessfully for the climbing wall which, had we found it, would no doubt have ended in tears; driving down La Manga strip looking for flamingos; playing golf (the crazy kind); going to the gym; jogging (!) and taking early morning/late evening dips in our pool.
All in all, an exhausting, thoroughly enjoyable and eventful holiday which will hopefully become an annual event. Having read the above, if anyone is interested in getting some winter sun, some great tennis or golf (the proper sort) and having a few other adventures along the way then give Diane a ring as she will soon be organising the 2003 trip.
PS. Elaine, you owe us a fiver for not mentioning your driving skills.