AT the beginning of the school summer holidays a group of 23 players and staff from Hummersknott Badminton Club, in Darlington, set off on a five-country, seven-match badminton tour.

After 16 months of planning and fundraising, the journey looked doomed when a Greek air traffic control strike caused the cancellation of the group’s flight out of Manchester.

Thankfully, it was shortlived and 24 hours later than expected they landed in Larnaca, Cyprus.

After matches in Paphos (where the team was filmed by a local TV company) and Nicosia as well as a trip to North Cyprus and various tourist attractions in South Cyprus, the team jetted off to Cairo.

In just two days there the group visited the Pyramids, the Sphinx, an Egyptian bazaar, a papyrus shop, the Cairo Museum and enjoyed a Nile cruise – and still had time to fit in a three-hour badminton match in Gezeira in sweltering heat – the first time Hummersknott players had played in Africa.

From there it was on to Jordan, via a seemingly endless border crossing into Israel from Egypt, then into Jordan from Israel in a record-breaking temperature of 52C, before the group headed to Wadi Rum where they enjoyed a jeep ride across the desert sands at breakneck speeds.

The next day, after a visit to Petra, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, they moved on to Amman, Jordan’s capital city. Highlights of the trip to Jordan included floating in the Dead Sea, a trip to Mount Nebo where Moses saw the Promised Land before his death and, of course, a badminton match against a club which boasted international players.

Within the space of just six days the team had played in Europe, Africa and Asia. Last stop of the momentous trip was Israel, where sightseeing trips took in Jericho, a boat trip on the lake at Galilee, visits to Nazareth, Cana, Capernaum, Mount of Beatitudes, Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

The group also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum and managed to fit in two matches against strong opposition in Ashdod.

In the words of a tour bus driver: “You are running where Jesus only walked.”