Part 2 of Luke Graham’s blog from the World University Games. 

The exciting adventure began for real as Team GB, running on adrenalin from Chester, arrived at a balmy CSKA Moscow’s training ground.

We were like ravaging wolves after a long-winded, two-hour bus trip, and thankfully food was waiting pretty much on arrival.

The preparation is designed to help us adjust quicker to life at the athletes’ village when in Kazan. Four single beds to a room, training at the kick-off times in Kazan and dealing with the humidity, for example.

Two things we won’t have to deal with in Kazan are no air-conditioning and no Wi Fi! Our rooms are like saunas and make it hard getting to sleep at night.

In my room are gorgeous George, Platty and Belly. We decided on a naming game to help us drift off. Ranging from Footballers to Celebrities, it certainly did the trick. Though Platty often lost and still got up in the middle of the night for a cold shower!

The training facilities are fantastic and include 4G artificial turf, which again replicates the standards in Kazan. They have even managed to provide us with ice baths, which many of the lads were happy about!

The squad limber up at CSKA Moscow’s training ground.

We played a Russian second division side and managed another convincing 3-0 win. Marc ‘newshy’ Newsham scored a great header at the far post to set us on our way and followed up with another too. We were all pleased for him, as he has been struggling with a few injuries and finally got to show us his quality.

All of the lads have shown good ability so far and I’m certain we can be successful. With six games to come, we will need every one of us to contribute and come to the fore.

It’s time to introduce the brilliant staff we have, who have covered every aspect to make this journey possible. Managerial Scottish duo Stew Fowlie and Ross Campbell are always in good spirits and cover the organisation side of the squad.

James Ellis is our head coach and his assistant coach Steve Guinan. They have worked together great on our tactics, physical state and training sessions. Finally we have our performance analyst Jason Cook and our physio George Williams. We really appreciate their efforts.

With rest being vitally important in the environment we are in, there are plenty of hours spent in the room. Yet we were allowed time to prepare for a hugely anticipated ‘X Factor’ audition!

The five rooms quickly formed bands over 24 hours and worked hard on their ‘1 minute’ song. My room really went for it. We decided on Tinnie Tempah’s ‘Miami to Ibiza’ and named ourselves ‘The Hoodie Crew.’ We ended the performance with a freestyle dance-off and I got my surfboard out for the boys!

The staff judges really took on the roles well. Ross’ Louis Walsh’ Campbell was so good; there was a tear in the eye after “Forever 22’s” version of ‘Ain’t no Mountain High.’ The worthy winners were ‘Mixed Vibe’ after their polished version of ‘Iris’. The group consisted of Alex ‘Marvin Gaye’ Dyer, Craig ‘Tom Jones’ Moses, James ‘Will Young’ Baldwin and Tim ‘Gareth Gates’ Horn.

Roll on Kazan!