We are up at 7am. Mr Thomas has gone for an early morning run along the promenade in Mooloolaba. It’s a beautiful beach and coastline and there are a lot of people out exercising but he’s not surprised given the beautiful environment.
The coach is on time and we travel to the school to meet the lads. All are in very good spirits and have been well looked after.
Tom Ham has hit the jackpot again. He and Declan Duckworth were staying with Mike Hofland. He had been involved with the Norton antivirus software company which he had recently sold for $4billion. The house had its own cinema, pool and wine cellar (although Tom was at pains to stress that he didn’t partake of any of the fine wines). Tom was disappointed that the family yacht wasn’t up to his normal standard.
Luke Andrews and Joe Bright were with Harry Raven who was nice and friendly.
Ben Brown and Sam Cambriani got on well with Riley Kerr. They enjoyed a meal of chicken stir fry before taking him on at Fifa.
David Carpanini and Callum Carson enjoyed a curry with Jano van der Linde before going for a trip to the beach in Mooloolaba.
Josh Matthews hosted Kieran Charles and Sean Collins. He was a nice chap and they enjoyed a nice meal. Josh and Kieran will be opposing centres in the game tomorrow. Josh went to the gym, Kieran went to bed.
Similarly, Nathan Davies and Lloyd Dudley-Jones enjoyed a nice meal with their host Mav Ryan.
Max Treharne was in a big house-it needed to be as they had 7 children. Max had a king size bed that had a double bed above it. He enjoyed a nice meal.
Jack Soproniuk and Nick Williams stayed with Tim Moore. He had a really nice house, they enjoyed a lamb dinner before going out for a game of tennis on the tennis court.
Ethan Guy and Sam Nicholson stayed with Will Baker, he had stepped in at the last minute when their billet had been taken ill overnight. They owned land attached to the house that contained 30 acres of forest-they went quad biking in it. They then enjoyed steak and lasagne. This morning they’d had a full breakfast.
Rhys Edwards and Adam Fielding were staying in a nice house with Ollie Osborne and went for a visit to Molloolaba beach.
Ryan Hughes and Lewis Hyatt were staying with Tom Keats, they were a really nice and generous family who treated them to Steak. Ryan said “Lewis’s steak was the biggest I’ve ever seen,”
Jacob Ireland and Cameron Lewis stayed with Jack Fissenden. Cameron cut his shin playing touch rugby on the grass-it’s quite sharp and we’ll have to cater for abrasions in this afternoon’s games. Jack’s mum bandaged Cameron up and also replaced Jacob’s sling.
Tom Northey and Ollie Quick stayed with Tate Mcdermott. They were a nice family and they enjoyed a Mexican meal and were able to ‘just chill’
Similarly, Elliott Rees and Iwan Richards enjoyed the company of Johny Hanna and his family who were really nice. They enjoyed a chicken meal with them.
Steffan Tyrrell and Joe Whitehorn stayed with Broden Bickle. The family had a nice modern house. Their bedroom was en suite and they had a double bed each, Steff said the only problem was ‘Joe’s snoring.’
Ethan Harris and Rhys Baker were both on their own. Ethan was with Blake. He enjoyed a whole chicken before going to Blake’s Uni house. Rhys enjoyed a Mexican meal and said the family were really nice and that they met up with some of the other lads on the beach.
Sam Jones and Ehsan Yadollahi were with Eamon Notley. They had separate rooms and enjoyed a nice steak meal.
Sam and Trystan Williams were well looked after by Trent Davison’s family and had chicken for dinner.
We’ve heard that strong winds of up to 70km an hour are expected along the coast today. Our initial intention was for us to head up to Noosa where the scenery is meant to be stunning, however, it’s not likely to be so appealing if the winds are strong, so we ask the driver for other ideas. The boys are keen to do some shopping, unbelievably a lot of them still have plenty of money left. The driver suggests the Sunshine Plaza shopping mall and the boys give it the ‘thumbs up’.
It’s a 20 minute drive away and we arrive shortly after 10am. We establish a 2.15pm meeting time and allow the lads to get on with some ‘retail therapy’ Lots tell me they have bought presents for ‘loved ones’ back home, so you can expect something nice, mums and dads.
We hear from Miss Rushworth and the girls in Gympie. Everyone was well, but safe to say Gympie wasn’t considered on a par with the Sunshine Coast. They had been quite excited at the prospect of going to see the dolphin feeding, however when they arrived at 9am, they found out it had happened at 8am. Spirits were quite low and I certainly feel for them.
Meanwhile back at the Plaza, we follow the sign to the Food Hall. As we do so, we walk past 10 restaurants which sell meals from all nations and cultures. On the other side of pedestrianised street there are another 10 restaurants from differing cultures and regions. We arrive at the food hall which consists of a large seated area surrounded by about 20 fast food outlets. One thing was certain, the lads weren’t going to suffer from either a lack of choice or quality for lunch.
We hear again from Miss Rushworth and the girls, they were much happier having found a nice beach area where they had been able to relax and a shopping area close by where they’d been able to do there own bit of retail therapy-something that is guaranteed to raise spirits and effectively does so. They are to return to James Nash HS for the hockey game later in the afternoon.
The boys meet on time and transfer back to Sunshine Coast Grammar School for their matches that kick off at 4pm and 5pm. The under 16s are to play the school’s 2nd XV and the 1st XV are to play their open team.
Results:
James Nash High School: 6 Gowerton hockey: 0
Sunshine Coast 2nd XV: 5 Gowerton U16: 10
Sunshine Coast 1st XV: 27 Gowerton 1st XV: 12
Match reports can be viewed elsewhere.
Ten minutes into the 1st XV match, Lewis Hyatt has his left leg fractured and the ankle dislocated. It is a nasty injury and he can’t be moved. An ambulance is called for, but takes 45 minutes to arrive. The game is halted while we wait for it to arrive. Lewis is in terrible pain and it is quite distressing for many. Mr Lewis and Mr Thomas along with the attending nurse do their best to reassure and comfort him.
When the ambulance arrives, the paramedics administer fentolin which is ten times more powerful than morphine. Within minutes – after his giggles subside, Lewis is much more comfortable and is waving and cheering to the lads.
“Wow, this stuff is amazing.” He shouts over to the rest of the boys.
As he is loaded into the ambulance he is singing Waun and Gowerton RFC anthems and then as we are leaving the field he asks the ambulance driver if he can stop and open the rear doors so that he can wave to the boys.
“Can you buy this stuff?” he asks the paramedic, who smiles “I bet you boys sneak in and have the odd whiff of this, don’t you?”
Their care for Lewis is outstanding, but despite that the pain relief is starting to wear off when we arrive at Nambour hospital.
Lewis’s pain is so severe that he goes into the ‘Resus’ area of the hospital. A team of 10 Doctors and nurses attend to him. His pain is increasing, they attempt to give him more pain relief to allow them to X-ray the ankle before they sedate him, but with him clearly in a lot of pain they sedate him and bring the mobile X-ray machine in to do it.
Once the damage is assessed, the Doctor relocates the ankle and another plasters his leg. When he comes around they take him down to X-ray to see how successful their treatment had been. The dislocation had been replaced, but they weren’t certain that the fracture had been repositioned properly and Lewis may need an operation. The orthopaedic surgeon will look at the X-rays and tell him what is required. He is going into theatre, but will come out afterwards to see Lewis.
We ring home to inform Joanne and Jason of things. They are obviously concerned but reassured to hear that the care he is receiving is of such top quality.
Ryan Hughes and Mrs Keats visit Lewis in hospital. The Keats family have been very supportive. If Lewis needs to stay in Australia to recuperate for a while after we leave on Sunday, he would be very welcome to stay with them. It’s a very reassuring and generous offer and typical of the way in which we have been received whilst we have been here-hopefully we won’t need to take them up on it
The orthopaedic surgeon comes back to see Lewis at just after 11.30pm. He’s looked at the X-rays. The dislocation has been put back well but an operation is needed to insert a plate to knit the bones together and to insert a screw that will act as a substitute for the stretched ligaments until they are recovered.
The operation is relatively simple and should take about half an hour. Lewis will need to be sedated for about 90 minutes. The good news for Lewis is that by inserting the plate, his recovery will be faster and he’ll be back playing sooner. I’m not sure Jason and Joanne will be so pleased.
The operation is likely to take place in the early afternoon and Lewis may be discharged in the evening which will allow us to re-join the rest of the group later on in the day. After the operation he is likely to be fitted with a moon boot which should mean he is able to fly home on Sunday.
We go to sleep comforted by those facts.
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