I had no idea what to expect as I travelled by Coach to the Hilton Hotel at London Bridge. All we had been told was that we were required to remain at Camp over the weekend for a filming assignment.

Working with the Media isn’t uncommon for us as athletes and any publicity we can get is welcomed as it can only throw more light on our Sport and us.

The thing is, the Press normally come to us and it’s all fairly standard stuff. They ask questions, we give answers, nobody is particularly controversial etc…

To say this was a bit different is a huge understatement, and as the representative from “Renegade Productions” briefed us that evening, an already mysterious day took a decidedly surreal turn!

Early Sunday morning we were taken to a remote part of South London where we unloaded and transferred into our Rugby Chairs, “kitting up” in the middle of the street.

The Crew was positioned perfectly to catch us rolling along a deserted slip road, through several barriers amid blaring sirens, and down a long ramp straight onto the empty deck of the “Woolwich Ferry”.

The ramps went up, engines roared into life and we found ourselves in the centre of the River Thames heading purposely towards the Capital.

The premise behind the film was that we had “hijacked” the Ferry and were playing a game of Wheelchair Rugby onboard as we journeyed through London.

We were to hit several key landmarks along the way including The Thames Barrier, The O2 Arena (formally The Millennium Dome), Greenwich Naval College and Canary Wharf.

All this would take place on route to our ultimate destination, “Tower Bridge”, where a Chopper would descend and take aerial shots of the final throes of our game.

The whole experience was amazing. We swung between scrimmaging blindly as the Ferry went past iconic buildings, to shooting scripted passages of play on the quieter stretches of River.

Tower Bridge opened twice for us, holding up Bank Holiday traffic for several minutes each time and large crowds gathered on the Riverbank, cheering when the Ferry’s foghorn sounded as we passed beneath.

Party boats buzzed us as we played in front of HMS Belfast and other Channel 4 Camera’s took footage from various vantage points along our route.

Luckily the rain stayed away but changeable weather and a very odd playing surface still presented its challenges.

Old wooden decking with a prominent camber made pushing pretty bumpy and the wind isn’t something I have to account for very often!

Couple this with the Director’s penchant for having the Ferry sent into a blind spin for “effect” and you can see how things may have got a little confusing at times.

The low side rails that defined the margins of our court also took casualties in the form of five balls which, to my knowledge, are still bobbing around somewhere in the Thames!

As the shadows lengthened, we completed the final takes and docked back at Woolwich, sun-baked and exhausted after more than six hours of game play.

Everyone crashed straight out on the coach and we finally arrived back at Camp in Norfolk just after 10pm.

As I fell asleep that night, I couldn’t help thinking how privileged I was that this was just another day for me in what I think is a pretty amazing life.

If that sounds cocky, I apologize because that really isn’t my intention. I’m just trying to convey how grateful I am to be able to do what I do.

Channel 4 will screen our film among others as part of a compilation piece on August 29th to mark two years until the Paralympic Games in London.

As this gets closer I’ll let you know more details and timings… Be sure not to miss it, I certainly won’t be!

Life moves on quickly and I’m currently on my way to Montreal with GB to compete in our last warm-up tournament before the World Championships.

Seven of the World’s top teams go head to head in the “Canada Cup” this weekend. Hear all about how we do in my next post… If can’t wait until then you can check out team info at…

http://www3.aqsfr.qc.ca/CanadaCup/index.html

…and even catch live webcasts this weekend at…

http://diffusion.tvgo.ca/rugby/