The end has come

And so the final post on this Turkey on Tour blog.

After the Gala Barbie Saturday night following Turkey's historic first-ever international victory, it was a bright and early start as we flew back to Athens. A few of us went off to see the sites and then a flight back to Istanbul.

Turkish team line up at the Gala Barbie

A couple of hours hanging around at the Ulusoy bus station (where surprisingly no one congratulated us on our victory) and it was sleep all the way back to Ankara.

We are all exhausted. Five matches in six days. We gave Estonia and Czech Republic a good run for their money and quite frankly the Greeks and Swedes were a class above. By the way, Greece end up winning the tournament and as such have been promoted to Division 4.

It was an amazing tournament and an amazing experience for all of us. We have learned heaps and will be taking back to our clubs in Ankara and Istanbul all that we have learnt.

A big shout out to coach Raj Chaudrey, who at times must have been tearing his hair out, to the Hellenic Cricket Federation for putting on a great tournament, to the umpires, to BMAC - the official sponsors of the Turkish team (we wouldn't have been able to get to Greece if it wasn't for their great support, and last, a big big big shout out to Syed Mahmud who has done more than anyone to get Turkish cricket where it belongs... on the world stage.

Oh, and how can I forget but to thank all of our followers of this short blog. Your messages were read out each morning at breakfast and bouyed the whole team. Sorry we didn't have time to address all of you... but hey... we had some business out in the middle.

And one last thing... If you are in Ankara and want to play some cricket then head over to the Red Lion Cricket Club page and send us a message.

Cricketing tourists at the Acropolis.