• Rugby section Update
• Mini and Junior section Updates
• Netball section Update
• EGM and MUGA court update
• Cricket section Update
• CRY cardio screening event at Vandals
• House & Ground improvements
• Key dates for your Vandals Diaries

Dear fellow Vandal,

The 6 Nations is over for another year, spring is in the air and the new cricket season is nearly upon us. However we are now very much at the business end of the rugby and netball seasons and with our 1st XV and our Super 2s both still in the hunt for promotion, many junior age groups in Cup finals and our senior Netball sides also in the running for promotion there promises to be a very exciting few weeks ahead of us the highlights of which are covered in this update.

Rugby section Update
1st XV
With three league games to go our 1st XV sit in second place in the league behind Cobham knowing that if we win these last three games with bonus points then we we be promoted as champions.
The first of these crucial final 3 games takes place this coming Saturday we take on Hove RFC in a 3pm kick off. There is no lunch before the game but we will be opening the outdoor kitchen from 2pm to sell Hot dogs, bacon baps and burgers.
Congratulations to Josh Thomas who became the youngest Vandal to play his 100th league game in our bonus point win away to Old Ruts last Saturday. JT as he is affectionally known will be presented with his 100th cap immediately after the game this Saturday.

On Saturday 11th April the team travels to South Croydon to play third placed Trinity RFC in our last away league game of the season. This game is a 3pm kick off and it would be great if took a large traveling Vandals support to cheer the boys on in the pivotal game.

Our final league game is the following week, Saturday 18th April when we host local rivals and league leaders Cobham RFC in what promises to be an epic winners take all game. We have played Cobham twice this season already, losing to them in the league just before Christmas before knocking them out of the national cup at the end of January.
I really want to make sure we have our biggest home crowd for many years to cheer the boys on so please spread the word and make this an historic Vandals day. I’m pleased to report that we have 180 guests attending my Presidents lunch prior to the game so that is a good start.

Whilst our league campaign finishes on Saturday 18th April we still have the national cup quarter final to look forward to on Saturday 2nd May when we travel down to Devon to take on Paignton RFC at Newton Abbott RFC ground in a 3pm kick off.
Should we win this QF then have been given a home draw in the Semi final against either Thurrock RFC or Cheshunt RFC which take place the following Saturday, Saturday 9th May. The final is being held at Twickenham on Saturday 23rd May.

Super 2s
One of the things I’m most proud of this season is the performance of our Super 2s. The 2s currently sit in top spot a league of so called bigger clubs and this Saturday we host second in the table Sutton & Epsom in a winners takes all game on the training pitch 3pm kick off. What an amazing achievement it would be if the 2s win their league and a real testament to whole senior squad and our coaching team who committed to this back in July.

Owls
Congratulations to the Owls who won our first trophy of the season last week end by winning the Surrey vets finals day tournament which the club was once again proud to host. Great wins against OCs and London Irish saw captain Micheal O’Connor lift his first trophy as Owls captain. The Owls now turn their attention to the Surrey league cup and a semi final at home against Richmond Heavies.

Mini section update
On Sunday 15th March we had a record 88 teams take part in our Spring mini festival in the spring sunshine. A big thank you to the small army of volunteers who gave up their Mothers Day morning to help park 500 cars, bbq hundreds of burgers, set up tuck shops. In recent years our Vandals mini festivals have earned a reputation for being the best run and most friendly in Surrey and this year just reenforced that.

I’m pleased report that our mini section had another very enjoyable tour to the IOW., our legendary club band Big Tackle rocked the Island and a great time was had by all.

Last Sunday afternoon our Vandals Doc, Dr Caroline O’Leary ran our first in house First aid training course and I would thank Caroline for making this happen and congratulation the ten attendees who are now first aid qualified.

Finally Our Vandals rugby section “ Code of Conduct” posters have now gone up around the clubhouse and changing rooms. Thank you to our friends from Lick & Stick for printing these for us.

Junior section update
As we are now in the penultimate month of the season we are in the middle of tours, cup finals & planning for next season.
Starting from the oldest group.

Some great results for the Colts in recent weeks including a 45 - 19 win vs Chobham. This was topped by a stunning win in the Quarter final of the cup, Vandals beating OC’s 45 - 7. The semi final will see our Colts play Barnes for a place in the Cup final.

The U16s have had some amazing high scoring fixtures in March including a close loss in a friendly 38 - 40 to Guildfordians with two U15s playing up an age group for the first time. In an away fixture vs Guildford RFC, the U16s were run away winners beating the home side 12 - 57, a great effort from the squad before they become Colts next season.

The U15s have been on tour to Dorset where they faced Dorchester & North Dorset, they now look toward the Waterfall Cup final on the 19th April with the help of first team captain James Gulliver supporting the coaching team.

The U14s, U13s & U12s all completed their Waterfall Cup campaigns at the weekend (22nd). After a long campaign in Tier one, the U14s lost a competitive match to Chobham & the U14 Babas were valiant runners up in a tri tournament.
The U13s were edged out 10 - 6 by a very good Farnham side & the U13 (blues) beat a tough Battersea Ironsides team 7 - 1.
The U12s finished their first competitive Waterfall Cup competition by drawing a thrilling match 5 - 5, again vs Battersea Ironsides.

Valkyries Update
Valkyries eye cup clean sweep!!

Valkyries players will feature in three Cup finals this April looking to defend unbeaten records.

The all-conquering U14s and U12s squads have led the way as they have swept all before them in their Waterfall and Surrey Cup campaigns.

The U14s, featuring players from
Valkyries, Reeds and London Irish have seen their undefeated A and B teams reach finals at the Stoop on April 13th and at Cobham on April 26 th respectively.

The Valkyries U12s, who also cluster with reeds and London Irish and are lead by Ian and Michelle Taylorson, will face Old Rutlishians at Wimbledon on April 26.

Our U16s were disappointed to miss out on their cup final berth as they lost out at Wimbledon on Sunday. Good luck all.!!
Netball section update - from club captain Ellie Bicknell.
Weybridge Vandals Bs have enjoyed several successive promotions, and we weren’t sure if this would be the year we met our match. We started strong in both Kingston and Surrey leagues losing only one game before Christmas.
The team has showed fantastic adaptability and strength to keep that streak going post Christmas and have already secured promotion in the Kingston league. We remain top of the Surrey league Division 2 with only 1 point between us and second place (7 points between us and third) and our next game sees us face the second position team after Easter. So, all to play for but we hope we will achieve the double promotion again landing us in Surrey Div 1 and Kingston Div 5.
A huge achievement for a fantastic team.

Weybridge Vandals As have enjoyed an outstanding season across both competitions. They have already secured promotion to the top Surrey division (Prem A) with two matches still to play, and currently sit top of Division 1 in the Kingston League. Winning the Kingston League would earn them an invitation to compete in a playoff for a county-level place. To achieve this, they’ll need wins in their final two matches, but the team is excited about the challenge and opportunity.

EGM and MUGA court update- “One Club, Three courts, Built together”
At our recent club EGM plans to build three new floodlit MUGA netball courts was approved unanimously 101 votes to nil by our members. Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to what was a really constructive and engaging meeting.
As you know we have been working hard in the background on this project for nearly three years so it was great to be able to share our plans with our members at the EGM.

If you would like to read the background and egm meeting minutes they are available at the following:
https://1drv.ms/f/c/8c48eadedb2f458b/IgBWdaY2IrYiT6qke_Fd7RzhAUTUOQbQ4--dovGcvWKGURw?e=6o8g0f

Our biggest challenge with making this happen as always is affordability and we felt we needed to secure the majority of the funding before we approached members.
*Amazingly we have already raised £199k of grant funding explicitly for the purpose of the netball courts*
as local councils are very supportive of any projects that promote and encourage female sport’s participation. This has enabled us to make the vision of this key club development project a reality.

Our challenge now is to raise the other £150,000 we need to build the courts and refurbish the car park.
I’m pleased to say that Jane & Dave Hall have already donated £25,000 to kick off our fundraising efforts so we have £125,000 left to find.

This week we are launching our
“One Club, Three courts, Built together”
-Crowdfunding campaign-
with the aim of raising a at least £75,000 so that we can start work as planned in May for the new courts to be ready for the new season in September.
This Crowdfunding campaign is the opportunity for the whole Vandals family to make a contribution to help positively transform our facilities for this generation of players and generations to come.
We have also applied to Sports England to match fund up to £15k of our Crowdfunding contributions.

Every single person who donates will see their name on a board on the courts, with the following Supporter Tiers:

£0 – £100 – Friend of the Club

£100 – £250 – Supporter

£250 – £500 – Community Champion

£500 – £750 – Club Builder

£1,000 – Patron

£5,000 - Principle Benefactor

Please take 5 minutes to click on the Crowdfunding link below and if you are able please make a contribution.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-build-the-future-of-vandals-netball

Many of you reading this will also work for companies that have “Giving Schemes” aimed at local community projects and I would really appreciate it if you took the time to apply on our behalf. When we raised money for our new cricket nets £10k came from a company giving scheme that a member applied for.

I truly believe that this project will be positively transformational for our club but in true Vandals Spirit it will only happen through great teamwork and by everyone pulling in the same direction. The project team will issue regular updates on our progress.

Cricket section Update - From Cricket club captain, Graham Hills.
Not long to wait now, with the outdoor cricket season starting in mid-April (seniors) and early May (juniors).
This update provides a deep dive into our overall plans for the season, as we look to get everyone back into Cricket and enjoying the game on our amazing Island home.
And remember, if you have a family or junior player membership in the Rugby &/or Netball section then that covers the membership fees for this cricket season too. All are welcome to come down to the training evenings and 'give cricket a go.'

We are actively recruiting adult and junior players.

Senior Cricket:
If you fancy a new challenge &/or are a lapsed cricketer thinking about getting back into the game, please get in touch with Graham Hills (Tel: 07956 555402) who will be delighted to invite you along to a pre-season practice session and give you a warm welcome (see below for dates).
We run 3 Saturday senior league sides; a competitive but very friendly Sunday team and we'll be playing a number of T20 midweek games against local rivals.
Senior section practice nights will typically be Thursday's 6pm to 7:45pm, starting 13th April. Please do plan to roll up, have a stretch and hit some cricket balls.
Get Set Days: We have planned two dates for pre-season working parties, as there's always work that needs doing to get set for the opening home games. These are in the diary for Saturday 11th & 25th April, 10:00am to 4:00pm. Please pull on some old clothes, wear sturdy footwear and roll up to lend a hand - even if for just a couple of hours.

Pre Season Friendly Matches: We have 3 matches scheduled:
• 19th April, 1:00pm Start, Away at Sunbury CC
• 26th April, 1:30pm Start, Away at Old Woking CC
• 3rd May, 1:00pm Start, Home to Valley End CC
League season: Starts on with 3 matches on Saturday 9th May.

All the Matches are listed in 'Pitchero'. Players, please update your availability ASAP.

Junior Cricket: We have a busy schedule of matches, starting in early May. And our new coaching partnership with 'JM Coaching' supporting our 'in-house' coaching team, has already proven a great success during the winter indoor coaching sessions - helping the players progress from the basics through to more advanced technical skills as they developed and gained confidence.
This will carry through as we migrate to outdoor coaching sessions in April & May.
Please take a look at the grid below for headlines on training nights and matches across the various age-group squads.

Girls Cricket Recruitment & Cricket Taster Sessions: We are keen to expand our Girls cricket section, with aspiration to transition our existing U12-15 Girls Development Squad into three age-group squads at U15, U14 & U12/13. Winter nets have seen this expansion get off to a really good start and we'd like to kick on from there with taster sessions for new joiners to meet the coaches and the other girls.
These are set to take place on Monday 13th and 20th April, 6:00 to 7:15pm in our excellent cricket nets.

Please spread to the word to family, friends and colleagues. Whilst it's not essential to book, it would be helpful to know of names and numbers, so please give Graham Hills a call or send a message to 07956 55402.
We'll be able to provide cricket safety equipment and kit, if needs be - so just wear trackies & trainers and we'll get things going.

'ECB All Stars and Dynamos'
We shall also be running these hugely popular programmes again this summer - aimed at 5 to 7/8, and 8 to 11 year olds respectively: with a focus on having fun, learning the basics and growing in confidence before moving on to developing batting, bowling and fielding skills in game-play sessions.

If your child is interested in playing cricket, the programmes start on Friday 1st and Sunday 3rd May and run for 8 sessions, with a short break for the May half-term school holidays. The cost for each programme is just £50 (set by the ECB) with a range of kit and goodies included too.

Places on the programmes are filling up fast. Please spread the word. Here are the booking links and all the details you'll need to know:

All Stars (5 to 7/8 year old, boys & girls):
• Friday's 5:30 to 6:30pm: Click HERE to register
• Sunday's 10:00 to 11am: Sorry but this particular session is 'SOLD OUT' . Please message Graham Hills on 07956 555402 if you would wish to be added to our 'waiting list'.

Dynamos (8 to 11 year olds):
• Sunday's 10:00 to 11:00am
o Boys & Girls (Mixed): Click HERE to register
o Girls (only): Click HERE for all the details.
 NB: we have a limited number of bursaries available, sponsored by the ECB as part of the Women's T20 World Cup. Please message Graham Hills on 07956 555402, before you register, to obtain the booking code.

Cricket Camps: We are excited to be launching Cricket Camps at Vandals this season. The first of these will run on 26th to 28th May. Lots of information shown below. And HERE is a link to the booking page. We're also hosting a second camp in late July; more news on that in the next update or give Graham Hills a call on 07956 555402.

2025 Season - Awards Dinner
The event, held at the club on 6th March, was a great night with 90 members and guests celebrating the successes of our 2025 cricket season and raising £3,000 towards our running costs and investments for senior and junior cricket.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who supported the event, with special shout-out's to:
• Simon Greenhill for doing a splendid job on the Q&A session with our brilliant star guest and speaker, England & Surrey's Dom Sibley
• Gary the Chef and all of his crew on serving up yet another excellent meal
• John Hall for tee'ing up Dom as our star guest
• The Mums & Dads of many of our Girls Development Squad who turned out in force
• All of our Cricket Club Sponsors who were able to come along and support us.

And huge CONGRATULATIONS again to all the award winners. Here's the roll of honour:

Clubman of the Year Simon Drew
Batsman of the season Woo Powell
Bowler of the season Jonny Powell
Fielder of the season Ali Booth
Young Player(s) of the season (in senior cricket) Hayden Reeves & Eshanth Kandukuri
1st XI player of the season Woo Powell
2nd XI player of the season Sai Burugupally
3rd XI player of the season Prince Verma
Sunday XI player of the season Stuart Amos

That's it for this update. Looking forward to another great season.

CRY cardio screening event at Vandals Saturday 2nd May and Sunday 3rd May
I was delighted to announce at the beginning of Match that Weybridge Vandals will be hosting a Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) heart screening weekend at the club at the beginning of May.

Every week in the UK, 12 young people die from an undiagnosed heart condition. These simple screenings help identify potentially life-threatening cardiac conditions and can make a huge difference.

Who is it for?
Screenings are available for young people aged 14–35.

If you would like to book an appointment, please follow the steps below.

Please note: If the individual being screened is 16 or over, they must complete the consent form themselves.

How to book:
1. Visit: www.testmyheart.org.uk/private/
2. Find Weybridge Vandals listed for Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd May 2026 and click Register.
3. Enter the password: Weybridge2026
4. Select a time slot and click Register Now (you can book up to 3 appointments at one time).
5. Complete the health questionnaire (this takes approximately 15 minutes).

I’m disappointed to report that the take up so far has been very slow. Please don’t miss this opportunity, register today.

House & Ground improvements
A big thank you to Simon Drew our hard working House and Grounds chair and his crew of “Project Quagmire” volunteers who have done great job in transforming the area outside the marquee, outside bar and changing room entrance. I pleased to report that one of our Vandals alumni Leigh Bradley had sourced some free Astro turf which will be delivered in the next few weeks and will allow us to finish the job.

Thank you to Anna Krikorian and Colin Hayward who sponsored the non slip rubber matting that has been laid and Chris & Shane from Thames Materials for supporting our efforts.
Simon has a number of other improvement projects that he is working and we will continue to call on volunteer support to help us keep the costs down. If you are keen to get involved please speak to me or Simon.

Key dates for your Vandals Diaries

Saturday 18th April - Presidents Lunch - Vandals Vs Cobham RFC -3pm kick off

Friday 24th April - End of season BBQ and junior section awards.

Saturday 25th April - Senior Rugby section awards dinner - 6pm

Wednesday 29th April - Valkaries end of season social

Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd May - CRY cardio screening event.

Saturday 9th May - National Cup semi final at Brownacres 3pm kick off

Saturday 27th June - Weybridge Festival. Vandals beer tent and sporting activities.

Saturday 5th September -Club Summer Ball

Thank you for taking the time to read this bumper club update. As always the success of our club is dependent on the hard work and dedication of a small army of club volunteers. There are numerous roles we need help and support with and lots of stuff we would like to do better but this requires members of the Vandals family who want to give back to put their hands up and volunteer. If you are interested in helping or if you have ideas of how we could do things better then please speak to me or one of your hard working section chairs.

Thank you for your continued support .

Come on you Vs”
Cheers
Kev

Kev Keaney
Club President
Weybridge Vandals
Rugby,Cricket,Netball
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“Once a Vandal, always a Vandal”