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You've no doubt heard about
the air travel chaos caused by the Icelandic Volcano
eruption, with most of Europe a 'no fly zone' for the last
two days and no sign of when or how it will end.
Squash players, officials and fans do a lot of travelling,
so the effect on this part of the community will be
significant, so we'd love to hear of your experiences.
For starters, here's the story of World Number Two, Nick
Matthew, and England juniors, Declan James and
Carrie Ramsey , and Emily & Brogan at the German
Junior Open ... |
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Brits brave Germering
travel woes
 Emily
Whitlock had mis-understood the German Junior Open
Started Thursday so her and Phil flew to Munich Wednesday
and unknown to them, the travel disasters were unfolding
around Europe as they were fortunately sitting in their
hotel in Munich.
Brogan Lane was also competing in the under 19's and
realised her Friday flight was cancelled. Not wanting to
pull out as there were now only 2 English players competing,
her father Fred booked up the ferry and they drove 13 hours
to Munich. Declan James, still stranded in Manchester had a
mad plan to be driven and meet up with Fred but realised he
would arrive too late for his first round and regrettably
had to concede defeat and pull out. Brogan set out at 5am
Friday Morning and arrived 7pm in Germering, Munch and she
went on court at 8:30 winning her match 3/0.
 Emily's
trip payed off big time as she beat the classy, highly
tallented Melissa Alves in a scintilating 5 setter quarter
final to win 10/12, 11/6, 6/11, 12/10, 11/7 and then beat
Cyrielle Peltier 11/4, 11/9, 11/4 in the semis. On Sunday,
her confidence was riding high and she went on to win the
tournament after beating Sandra Polak 11/6, 11/4, 11/6 in
the final. Brogan finished 8th in the tournament and at 3pm,
Emily grabbed her trophy and prize money and all jumped into
the little Peugeot 206 for a 10 hour dash back to Calais to
catch the 2 o'clock sailing. They had a kip for 4 hours at
Fred's In Stortford and then picked up a hire car at
Stansted Airport to head back to Manchester and finish their
journey.
Well done Emily and Brogan. Now that's what I call
commitment!
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Declan James.
 From
Nottingham 16 years old U17 England number 1, Attempting to
fly to Germany for the German Junior Open.
17th birthday on the Monday so last ever u17 tournament.
Have booked it and been looking forward to it for a good 2
months.
Somewhat inspired by Nick's blog here is my story of a day
from which i was awake from 06.30am untill 12pm attempting
to get to Germany for my first round match in the German
Junior Open the following morning at 09.40am.
Thursday the 15th of April
06.30am. Wake up and prepare to drive to Manchester airport
for a 11.05am flight to Munich.
Receive a call from Ben Rodgers who am travelling with to
the German Open.
He tells me all flights are cancelled due to a volcanic
eruption. I say ''mate don't jest its too early for that''.
I check Manchester airport to find that
all flights are indeed cancelled and that he was not
jesting.
Thanks go to Ben Rodgers because had he not rang me i would
have driven to Manchester and witnessed the chaos.
Panic sets in.
Quickly look at the alternatives. Find a flight for 6.05pm
that evening. Book it and hope the dust clears.
10.00am. Evening flight now also cancelled.
Realisation that i may well not get to Germany in time for
my 9.40am match on Friday sets in.
Search every possible flight to Munich from any airport in
England.
Check news headlines for updates.
12.00pm. Considering the alternatives.
Train? Eurostar prices rocket due to flight situation. £230
per ticket. Eurostar fully booked.
Drive?
That's right i said drive.
Consider driving to the Euro Tunnel then driving from Calais
to Munich. Dad puts an end to that pipe dream. Too much
money too little time.
I agree with him.
4.00pm. Attempt to book several flights over the next hours
but no success due to fligts grounded.
10.00pm. News update:
All flights grounded untill 01.00am Saturday morning.
Utter disbelief.
Tried everything..it seems there are just not enough modes
of transport.
11.30pm. Receive a call from a Fred Lane asking if i would
like to travel with him on the ferry at 04.30am on Friday
morning and make the drive from Calais.
Desperate by this point and ring tournament organiser to see
if first round can be rescheduled to 5pm Friday afternoon.
It is however midnight in Germany and his mobile is switched
off.
12.00am. Call back Fred Lane and explain i have to pull out
now.
Bed
Sleep
Disappointment.
Nothing more i could have done.
Strange to think that a volcano has prevented me from
competing in a squash tournament.
Such is life
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 Here
is my little blog, I started it because I thought 'I
literally need to show someone step-by-step how bad this day
is' and ended up adding to it all the time!! I'd had a nice,
restful holiday before this!
THE JOURNEY
In Miami wednesday night, receive text from Air France
saying flight from Paris to Manchester cancelled.
We thank you for your understanding.
Cuss Air France.
Never going to fly them with them again.
Said that last time.
8 hour flight from Miami to Paris........blissfully unaware
of what lies ahead.
Land in Paris Charles de Gaulle at 8am.
Hear about the Volcano ash.
Wait 1 hour for bags.
Queue for 3 hours for flight info.
Girl behind us never shuts up.
No flights today.
All UK airports closed.
Can't promise anything tomorrow......suggested Eurostar is
our best bet.
Travel 30 mins across town to Gare du Nord.
Queue for 2 hours, prepared to pay the £230 each.
Listen to people gloating about having a ticket.
Eurostar fully booked til Saturday.
Suggested that train to Calais then ferry to Dover is now
our best bet.
Don't fancy that!
But, they might be putting on extra train. Nobody seems to
know.
Might start swimming.
30 mins back to airport.
Queue 90 mins for complementary hotel. Still no info about
tomorrow. Given a seemingly mystical phone number which will
solve all of our problems.
3654.
What kind of number is that?
Call the number.
Can't get through on an English phone.
Of course not. Silly me.
Arrive just in time for bus to hotel.
Time for some much needed shut eye.
Or not.
Bus full.
Next bus will be here in a minute.
1 hour til next bus.
Can't get on the internet to check further options.
Sat here writing this note.
Head on the floor.
Guiros still on his BlackBerry.
Might try renting a car.
Queue 10 miles long.
Manage to get online.
Manage to book Eurostar ticket for tomorrow.
First bit of good news all day.
It's now 9pm.
Still at Charles de Gaulle.
Next bus also full.
Decide to make our own way to hotel.
No taxis.
40 mins train ride across Paris.
20 mins walk with our bags.
Turn up at wrong Ibis. Bizarrely, I'd stayed here during the
Internationaux de France in 2008!
20 mins walk with our bags to other Ibis.
Nearly put my bag down on the pavement and go to sleep on
it.
Arrive at correct Ibis. Surely something else will go wrong?
it doesn't.
Food.
Shower.
Sleep.
With a beer or 2 in between food and shower for Neil.
And with ice cream for me.
Awake in the morning full of renewed hope & vigour.
10 mins walk with bags.
10 mins train ride to Gare du Nord.
Collect Eurostar tickets from very friendly machine.
Queue 1 hour to board train.
Feels like 5 mins.
Different mentality today.
Things are going to go well.
Yesterday, EVERYTHING that could possibly go wrong did.
Today, would be the opposite.
Pass French customs.
Massive feeling of relief.
We're on our way!
2 hour Eurostar journey passes in what feels like 10 mins.
Arrive in London St. Pancras.
Get to Euston easy peasy.
Make the 12.40 to Manchester with a minute to spare.
Everything is going swimmingly.
Sat on train to Manchester writing this note.
I'm hoping the rest will read...........
Pick up car.
It's magically turned in to a Ferrari.
Not a single car on the road.
Cross the snake pass in a record 10 mins.
Arrive at home in Sheffield.
The fridge is full and the sun is out.
And I have a beautiful woman waiting for me!
Too much to ask?!!
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German
junior open
 When
Declan rang me at 6am on thursday, I honestly didn't believe
him. 'Carrie there's been a volcano in iceland our flight's
been cancelled'. Neither did my mum until we switched on the
news. At this point, after watching the news intensely and
watching the live flight timetable, flying later in the day
seemed to be the best plan (airspace should be open by
6pm...)
I decided to hold back as declan booked onto a later
flight... 2hours later... Cancelled.
By this time we were looking into all sorts of options,
flying in the morning from manchester-far too expensive,
flying from a different northern airport-no flights, flying
from gatwick-too far, drive...cars in for MOT, eurostar-too
expensive! Little did we know that there was no point anyway
as all air traffic was pretty much cancelled the next day
too!
There's no one we can blame...
Gutted to miss my last ever junior tournament, but I suppose
european championships wasn't a bad note to finish on!!
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