Sunday 13 December - Bracknell at home

Bracknell came to us with similar numbers which made for balanced sessions with the drills and games at the end.

Warm up drills started before 10am for players as they arrived to keep everyone moving and to try and prevent players getting cold. By 10am we were already running the session drills which involved passing and competing for the ball. The latter drill involved having a little lie down on the ground before leaping up to compete with the opposing player!?

With the numbers being fairly equal, two teams were fielded with substitutes, so everyone got game time against Bracknell. The Blacks played the Bracknell A team and the Golds played the Bracknell B team. The A's played well, competing for the ball with solid tackling and strong play in the ruck/maul situation. The Blacks won all three of their games - well done.

The Golds were fairly evenly matched against the Bracknell B team, but due to too many missed tackles and not being as quick to the ball at the breakdown missed out on a victory of their own in their two games played. Keep at them Golds!

With the change in temperature too many players suffered from the cold. The knocks and bangs that were suffered smarted the more for the cold too. It shouldn't need to be said, but plenty of layers (under the shirt and shorts), gloves, hats etc are now the order for the day.

Next week - London Irish (probably at home)

Sunday 6 December 2009 - Farnham and KCS at home

Unfortunately the weather has defeated us and all fixtures for this triangular meet, hosted at both Camberley and Kings, were cancelled due to waterlogged pitches.

Next week at home with Bracknell visiting.

Sunday 29 November 2009 - Reeds and Richmond

Well all those that finally got there, made it even with the A3 slip road being closed after an accident. The weather was highly dubious and when the confirmation came through at 8am to say it was on the wet weather gear was packed and off we set. As it happened the rain stayed away for pretty much the whole time we were there. For those who did stay for a drink afterwards, well, those got wet on the inside and out, serves them right for such indulgence!

Anyway, the last time we met both Reeds and Richmond, was at the Reeds festival several weeks beforehand where we had a real wake up call and failed to score a single try and lost all our games. Hard work by the players and the coaches since then meant that much of that lost ground was made up and we were able to make a stand against both Reeds and Richmond. We didn't manage to win all our games, and did in fact lose more than we did win, but we were definately a force to be reckoned with. We had skills in some areas of play which were much better that those of any of our opponents, we just need to work on some of the other areas. Who knows, we may be winning all our games against all oncomers.

Sunday 22 November - training

Training was a very wet affair and by 11am the whole club had abandoned training. We hope everyone dried off at home and took advantage of the extra hour to do other things.

Sunday 15 November

The away friendly at Chipstead was cancelled due to their waterlogged grounds, so training at home. As it turned out the weather was very pleasant, albeit the ground was a bit moist. A muddy time was had by all, well.... by all the players anyway.

Sunday 8 November - Redingensians at home

We had Redingensians visit us at home and it was lovely to start our friendlies this season with such a nice bunch.

This weekend was also Remembrance Sunday and it was quite a spectacle to see everyone at Watchetts ground follow the two minutes silence. It helps make a new generation aware of the sacrifices that generations have made before them.

Anyway back to rugby, we had a warm up session all together and then split into our clubs to run the same drills so that the players can continue to be familiar with their own team mates as well as learning skills. Plenty of time was left at the end to play some friendly games. We had three teams which had the opportunity to play at least one game against the Redingensians teams. Everyone played well, but after some strong driving play, this helped us to win 5 out of the 6 games played. Well done Camberley! Tuesday night training will continue to practice the tackle, mauling and rucking to build on the great play we have seen today.

Next Sunday - away at Chipstead.

Sunday 18 October - Camberley festival

Wow, again, if you have already read the match report on the main web page.

The boys played fantastically today. We identified that the players could be more competitive last week , they obviously all read these comments as they were definately more competitive today. They were tackling, mauling and rucking all in the same game. Head coach Steve, as he watches a Heinekin cup game, commented that apart from little things like kicking, he can't see that much difference in the play that happened today.

Our tackling held teams at bay and stopped them breaking through and scoring tries. Our players were stepping over in the ruck and stopping the ball being turned over. As for our mauling, the Golds, in their plate final, pushed the Drifters backwards from near the halfway line back to their try line.

Competitive - that we were. Well done to the players as it was they who played the games and played them well. Brilliant!

Next week - Sunday training at home. No training this Tuesday or half term Tuesday.

Sunday 11 October - Reeds A and Wimbledon B festival

Please see the match reports on the main Camberley U9s web site where match reports will now be posted.

We would have liked a better result from the two festivals, and have noted areas where we can improve our competiveness against other teams going forward. For players and parents (and coaches and managers) it is a much more positive feeling to win more games. The players enjoyed themselves nonetheless and we hope to take things from our first competitive matches that we can we can apply to our festivals next weekend. Indeed we achieved a better result in the Wimbledon Bs festival than we acheived last year.

Next week we host our A and B festival at Camberley. Please note we will be playing at Watchetts school and there is a strict no dogs policy in the school grounds.

September training to 12 September

Well, we are now training for contact rugby and the players seem to have been waiting for the summer to end so the tackling can start. We have the joy of tackles, scrums, line outs, rucks, mauls, oh the list is endless of all the new things to be learnt. It may be uncontested scrums etc and there is no kicking as yet, but this is real rugby now. The coaches have been working hard to teach the players all these new skills and then practice them in playing games in each training session. It's scary how some of the players are so focussed on getting their man that they seem to fly through the air. Also, now we are playing 'real' rugby parents seem to concentrate on the games much more at the sidelines. It's great, if the players can focus during training sessions and enjoy what they are doing, then let's hope we can do well when we get to play other teams and get to tackle people who aren't our friends within our own squad.

We have also had 4 new players joining in on training sessions, with a couple more waiting in the wings to join, and this is before we even reach 'Try Rugby' weekend at the end of September.

Now we have started tackling, although the weather has been nice, I can't help thinking should we be doing rain dances to make the ground a bit softer for the players - not that they seem to have noticed!

2009/10 Season

Training starts on Sunday 6 September 2009 from 10am until midday. There will also be training on Tuesday evenings from 6.30pm-7.30pm. Both training sessions will be at Watchetts Recreational ground. Gumshields must be worn.

Sunday 17 May - summer training

This was the first of the summer training sessions to be held. There were heavy showers at the start of training and only 7 players showed they were not faint hearted and still keen to train whatever the weather. They were a mix of our most seasoned players across to our newest member. A game of touch was played to warm up as the rain poured down, but when the rain got really heavy a halt was called and a nearby tree used for shelter. After half an hour however the sun came out and the still eagre players were able to shed several layers down to their shirts (and even the shirt came off for one player). Drills focussed on passing skills and practising called moves so that the players knew what their team mates were doing. We finished off with another game of touch rugby, including line outs and scrums. To make up the numbers one player's older sister joined in for her first rugby experience and enjoyed it so much she is considering joining the under 11s next season!

Well done to all those that braved the showers.

To note, the clubhouse now plans to be open every day over the summer, weekends and weekdays, therefore coffees, teas etc will be available for all training sessions.

Next week training again, 10am to 11.30 ish.

Sunday 26 April - Fun Day

And the sun shone (which is more than it did last year). Fun rugby games were played. The first game was a crab foot rugby game thing, which I took photos of, but doesn't really demonstrate how odd it looked with all the kids shuffling around on their bottoms. Then there was a game of rugby rounders (now I know that there was at least one disappointed dad that they weren't asked to join in). We then took advantage of the fact that we had the whole pitch and really tried to tire the players out by playing a capture the flag along the length of the whole pitch. I have absolutely no idea who won, or what the rules were, or what exactly they were really trying to achieve - perhaps I had to be 8 to understand this. The squad all then finished up playing a game on a full pitch, with full rugby rules (ish) except for contact, We had kicking, we had throw ins and we had conversions. And still they weren't tired out. So we gave in and had the awards ceremony, everyone got a medal and each coach awarded one of the trophies. Well done to everyone, every medal and trophy has been well earned.


To finish it off, there was a coaches/managers vs Dads game, refereed by the players. The referee I felt was a bit strict, but was firmly supported by his assistant referee, touch judge and many supporting co-mates. There were cries of forward pass, off side - but surely not, we were grown ups and wouldn't dream of doing such things even if it was largely by error. I am pleased to say that in the last play of the game, the coaches/managers were victorious - which is of course was how it should be (in my opinion!). There were photos taken of the game which will hopefully be available for public viewing soon.

Out of season training agreed so far will be on Sundays 17 May, 24 May, 14 June and 28 June. 10am for 1.5-2 hours.

Sunday 19 April - Surrey A festival

The sun shone for the festival today. There were 24 teams competing, spread across 8 pools of three teams. Our first game was against Richmond who we played at Effingham and Leatherhead. We kept them in their own half for much of the first part of the game and were competitive ending the half with the score 2-2. However in the second half we didn't maintain this pressure and, unfortunately went behind and lost. Our second game was much better, we won! Passing and tagging was good and we looked much more switched on. This placed us second in our group and put us through into the plate competition. We had a 1.5 hour wait until our quarter final. In this game, due to errors and the resulting turnover ball, we lost by one try, but it was a really close game and one we could and should have won. As in many of our festivals, we receive compliments about our passing ability, but due to simple errors we then lose this advantage. Some of these errors included dropped passes (ambitious passing) and too many steps after a tag - next season having to count steps, count seconds or not hearing the referee shout 'Tag' will not be a problem, as a tackle will be a tackle and the player will be on the floor.

It's not just the players who are looking forward to tackling next season to avoid these frustrations.


Next week is the Fun day. Hopefully everyone can make it. There will be food, drink and games. Parents wear your trainers (sorry a late warning by the time I got this published).

Sunday 12 April - Easter Sunday

No rugby today. I predict that lots of chocalate has been eaten instead.

Sunday 5 April 2009 - training

Well, this was the last full training session of the season. Drills were followed that concentrated on passing, communication and maintaining position. These were even obvious to the parents as being good all round drills. Also, albeit we are at the end of the Season nearly, we had a new player turn up to join us.

With the forthcoming Surrey A festival, we played some tag rugby to help in preparation. This will be the last competitive tag festival we play in, after that it will be full contact. Not that the players seem to be looking forward to this in any way!

Next week is Easter Sunday - everyone can have a weekend off.

Sunday 29 March 2009 - Effingham & Leatherhead festival

Wow the players just get better and better.

After a super performance last weekend the squads have gone on to show that they can play even better and greater rugby. The play today has been, without a doubt, the best the players have produced yet. The blacks won two out of three of their games in their pool and got into the semi finals play off. Their play just seemed to improve, game by game, matching the play of Richmond in their semi final in what was really a very close match.

And the golds were in the plate semi final. They pulled out all the stops in their semi final and without the luxury of any substitutes by this stage, they played their best game and were close to securing a place in the plate final by the matter of one try.

If you check out the photos of the festival you can see how the players have their eye on where the ball is and are there in support. It is a team game after all and the players were really pulling together.

I think an appreciation should be registered for the coaches too, as not only have they brought us to being here, but their skilled and unbiased refereeing was obviously also well valued, as we were requested to referee in two of the finals for both the A and B festivals.

After the high of the last two weeks, we are training at home next week.

Sunday 22 March - Surrey Development festival

Those of you who were at the festival today, may have noticed the water bottles we were able to bring on at half time. These have been funded from further sponsorship from RBS, courtesey of Tracie Dugmore. The funds secured will also be used to purchase new poles and more water bottles to cover the whole squad as we hope to enter A, B and C festivals next season. We should not forget that the sponsorship from RBS has already paid for the two day tents we use at festivals and of course the sponsorship from BOC, which paid for the squad jackets. Many thanks to Tracie & Antony Dugmore and RBS & BOC for these funds which have benefitted the players.

Anway, turning to today, we were lucky enough to be able to enter two teams in the festival, and this gave the opportunity for everyone in the whole squad, who was available, to be able to take part in the Surrey festivals. For some of our players this was their first festival attendance a matter of weeks after joining Camberley Rugby club.

The Black and Golds squads played in separate pools. Although the Golds did not achieve any victories in their pool, they did score tries in every game, something not all the teams were able to do. This is something to be held as an achievement as it showed we did break through the defences where others could not. In their last game, they held out well against their opponents who repeatedly turned over the ball, but unfortunately we were not able to take full advantage of this. We turned over the ball ourselves and so need to concentrate on skills of accurate passing and catching which we can carry through to next season.

The Blacks had a little more success; in winning their first game 8-4 they demonstrated some good play - solid defending, support and passing of the ball. In their second game, they fought back from being 3-0 down at half time to bring the score back to 3-3 and lost out on the final play of the match to go down 3-4. In the last two games our play did not demonstrate the same levels of accomplishment and due to small mistakes, that resulted in turnover ball, we lost these games too. Again errors in passing and catching contributed. These are core skills and players need to concentrate on passing accurately and keeping hold of the ball. Support is also vital.

Next week we have another festival at Effingham and Leatherhead. For those who remember last year, we can only hope that conditions and the weather are better - this however would not be difficult!

Sunday 15 March - at home

Today we had Newbury visiting. As part of the arrangements for Newbury's visit, we sought further clarification on when we can introduce training for the tackle and, contrary to the advice we had received previously, were given a revised date of September 2009!! Whilst we will clearly alter our coaching plans because of this we intend to continue playing games of touch.


Anyway, we had fantastic weather which was lovely for everyone. Training started with games of tag and then went into drills which concentrated on maintaining position and passing. Games of tag were then played against Newbury. Where we played full strength Newbury squads we won two games, drew one and lost one, which is great. We also played a Bar-bars team, meaning that everyone got a chance to play. All our players did well, running hard, taking tags and using the space available - well done, keep it up.


The next two weekends we have festivals and so there will be no training for those that are not selected. Sunday 22 March is the Surrey Development festival, held at Watchetts - everyone is welcome to come along and support those playing; there will be at least 4 players there just to cheer our two teams on. Sunday 29 March is the Effingham & Leatherhead festival. Again supporters are welcome, but it is obviously that bit more distant. Coaches have fingers crossed for better weather this year. Bring waterproofs just in case.

Sunday 8 March - training

Well, as planned, we played a full contact rugby game today. Beforehand drills were practised which covered passing the ball, the tackle and srummaging. But as said, we played full contact rugby today! Each time play stopped, bodies were picked up off the pitch, there were bruises, bumps, scrapes etc in abundance and even one minor blood injury. Did it put the players off? Well, the general consensus seems to be that it was fantastic fun. From a spectators point of view it is a much more interesting game to watch than a tag rugby game.

From back at the beginning of the season, we practised falling over, and today there were few, if any, instances of arms being put out to break the fall which is good, as this should avoid injuries. Some tackles were above the armpits, and so were high, this will need to be worked on. Players could also offload sooner, but this will hopefully become more natural, in the attempt to avoid being tackled and so save the pain.

Next week we are at home with Newbury visiting (so no full contact games I'm afraid)

Sunday 1 March - home to Petersfield

We are now into the final couple of months of the season and our drills continue to be focussed on training for the tackle. We had Petersfield visiting and after some decision making drills to make both attacking and defending teams react to different situations in which all players took part, we then split into Camberley and Petersfield groups to focus on different tackling drills. Camberley continued to train for making the tackle on the move, whereas Petersfield concentrated on learning how to fall safely.

Games of touch were played at the start of the session and at the end. Camberley played well against Petersfield winning one game and drawing the other (albeit we had the majority of the possession), with some players now applying skills more applicable to a contact game. The core skills of accurate passing, catching and staying on side still need to be improved for some players to reduce the instances of turnover ball however. This said, the skills shown today across the squad, show players getting the ball away quickly after the tackle and this is getting better week on week! Well done.

Next week - training at home.

Sunday 22 February 2009 - training and festival

Today the squad was split between training at home and a mini festival at Redingensians.

Training continued with the basics of the tackle, which was an initial introduction for some of our players. Touch rugby was also played, with some good play being shown.

At the festival, there were two other visiting teams. We won one game but did lose the others. This does not necessarily reflect on how we played, as we did show some good play and it was a close call on at least one of those games we did not win. In particular we held our line and passed well. We do, however, need to be more consistent in this and be more aggressive in our defence to win more games. One thing that was noticeable, on those odd occasions that our players did go to ground after being tagged, they were automatically rolling away from the ball and pushing it backwards - a good indicator for next season!

Next week we are at home with Petersfield visiting.

Sunday 15 February - training

Watchetts was again unplayable this Sunday and so we used our alternative training location out at Bagshot. We were outside this week and conditions were actually very good, with the ground being nice and soft.


We continued training for the tackle and played a game where the tackle was used. Also in advance of the festival next Sunday, we finished with a game of tag, in which the players seem to enjoy the ability to run more freely.


Next week - Redingensians festival and training at home

Sunday 8 February 2008

Old Ruts friendly was cancelled due to poor pitch conditions after the snow and Watchetts was not available to train on for the same reason. However we have now secured some indoor training facilities and these were put to good use. One of the real big benefits that came out of this, was being able to use the available TV/DVD to help demonstrate the correct positioning for tackles and scrummaging to the players. This seemed to be really beneficial and soft gym mats were also available and used to practice what had been seen.

Training at home next week

Sunday 1 February 2009

Today we had Cobham visiting us for a friendly. As in previous weeks touch rugby was played as a warm up and in the final games. Also this being February, we were able to start training for the Tackle, to prepare for next season and contact rugby. A bit of scrummaging was also tried for the first time.

The weather was very cold, with a minus chill factor with the wind, but I am pleased to say that I think that without exception, all the Camberley players were well wrapped up.

Next week we are due to visit Old Ruts.

Sunday - 25 January

We were at home with Haslemere visiting us today. We have continued focussing on touch rugby and did this as the warm up and for the games at the end. Other drills ended up with all the players getting extremely muddy. Thank you to Haslemere for coming to us in such damp conditions.


Due to the wet conditions, the falling over and the wind, some of the players got very cold however. This has meant they might not have enjoyed the sessions as much as they could. It is therefore important that parents provide enough layers for the players, preferably with hats and gloves so that they don't get cold. Remember PLAYER LAYERS!


As of next week, we can begin training for contact rugby and will start learning how to tackle. As stated by e-mail and by the coaches, players must wear gum shields and clothing (especially trousers, sweat pants, etc) that have no zips to be allowed to participate in this part of the training. This is for the players own safety and for those that they will be learning to tackle.


Next week we are at home again, with Cobham visiting.

Sunday 11 January

Today was originally to be a traingular at Maidenhead with Windsor. This was cancelled due to concerns over Maidenheads pitches.

Training at home was then also cancelled after an early morning pitch inspection by one of the coaches.

Next week we are away at Guildford for another triangular with Wimbledon.

Sunday 4 January 2009 - Training

I try to avoid commenting on the weather all the time, but it was really cold today. It was minus 5°C when the coaches first arrived and even they had donned trousers to keep warm, except for David, who was obviously more hardy than most (or should that be foolhardy?).


Despite the ground being hard it was agreed that as this was a training session that, with care, we could still continue. After some warm ups and running around, a game of touch rugby was played, with shouts of 'pass' and 'sit' echoing around the pitch. This was followed up by some drills to emphasise some of the points that arose out of the play, finishing again with another game of touch rugby.


The second game was more fluid than the first, with more passing happening without so much prompting. From a spectators point of view, it looked more like a real game of rugby you see on the tv.


Next week we are away in Maidenhead.

Sunday 28 December - Training

We had a bit of a fun session today, playing games such as rugby rounders which some of the parents could join in with. It didn't matter that the parents/coaches could kick the ball further, they were still prone to having their kick's caught and so getting out. It's surprising how competitive the grown ups are!

We also had a go at touch rugby which proved an interesting exercise and demonstrated the importance of passing the ball before being tackled.

There were mince pies for everyone - sorry to those who didn't like mincemeat.

Training at home next week.