RUGBY ROUND-UP: The rugby season gets underway in earnest at 3pm this afternoon with the pick of the fixtures being mighty clash at Hamsey Green between Warlingham and Old Reigatians in London 2SW.

Warlingham, the area’s senior club, have been shunted over from the south-east to the south-west division of rugby’s league ladder over the summer, which will give them more local games, such as at Dulwich next Saturday with Old Alleynians, and trips to Leatherhead, Farnham and Weybridge, but also longer journeys against Hampshire clubs Portsmouth and Winchester.

With a new captain in Jon Osborne, Warlingham under coach Ben Stobart have prepared thoroughly for the new season, with 50 players turning out for the last pre-season training session on Thursday night.

Warlingham prides itself in turning out four XVs as often as finding suitable opposition allows, plus various old crocks in a veterans side, but the senior side has welcomed back a couple of its most promising products of the club’s extensive mini and youth set-up, with Harry Wrightson and Guy Maynard both turning out in last Saturday’s final pre-season fixture, a 38-19 win against local rivals Purley-John Fisher.

Warlingham’s tries were scored by Kieran Scutt, Wrightson, Brad Saffery, Jack Atkinson, Alex Glover and Joe McEvoy, with four conversions kicked by Maynard.

Kay Wilson: one of the country’s first professional women rugby players

Over on another Hamsey Green pitch, the local derby theme continued, as an Old Mid-Whitgiftians side, who had travelled all the way up from the other end of Limpsfield Road with a team including several first XVers, won win 61-24 against Warlingham 2nds.

• There will be a moment’s silence before today’s match, to remember Jonathan Straker, Warlingham’s former president and towering lock forward of the past, who died recently. A memorial service will be held at Stationers’ Hall in the City of London in November.
• Trinity School has been named as one of the training venues for the France squad  during next year’s Rugby World Cup. Someone who allocated the 20 competing sides among the 41 training venues clearly had a sense of humour. The Romanians have been assigned to Dulwich College, the old school of UKIP’s Nigel Farage…
•  Women’s Rugby World Cup-winner Kay Wilson, the former Warlingham and Old Cats youth player, has been awarded a professional contract by the RFU, which puts the England wing in a strong position to be considered for the national women’s 7s team when it comes to qualifying for the 2016 Olympics in Rio, where rugby will make its return to the Games.

Contact your local rugby clubs here:

• Croydon
• Old Mid-Whitgiftians
• Old Walcountians
• Old Whitgiftians
• Purley John Fisher
• Streatham-Croydon
• Warlingham

• Exclusive readers’ offer: a free glass of wine for diners at Albert’s Table

Coming to Croydon

• Soul Symphony Community Choir sessions, Sep 16-Dec 23
• Police question time, LNK at Centrale, Sep 17
• David Lean Cinema: Chef, Sep 18
• Norwood Society Talk: Remembering the Great War, Sep 18
• The Complete History of the BBC – Abridged, Spread Eagle, Sep 19-20
• Cinema Ruskin film show, Sep 20
• South Croydon business breakfast, Sep 20
• Open House London weekend, Sep 20-21
• David Lean Cinema: A Night At The Cinema in 1914, Sep 22
• Activity to Work back-to-work workshops, Sep 23
• David Lean Cinema: Jimmy’s Hall, Sep 25
• Streatham Common 6M race, Sep 27
• Fancy dress family funday, Sep 28
• Ukrainian choir concert, St John’s Shirley, Sep 29
• Tree Sides, Spread Eagle Theatre, Oct 2-4
• The Goon Show, Spread Eagle Theatre, Oct 8-11
• Norwood Society Talk: From Fire Station to Theatre, Oct 16
• Cinema Ruskin film show, Oct 18
• South Croydon business breakfast, Oct 18
• This Was The World and I Was King, Spread Eagle, Oct 23-25
• Albert Einstein – Relativity Speaking, Spread Eagle, Nov 12-15
• South Croydon business breakfast, Nov 15
• Norwood Society Talk: Lambeth’s Archives, Nov 20
• Choose Your Own Documentary, Spread Eagle Theatre, Nov 21-22
• The Last Sense of Sudden, Spread Eagle Theatre, Nov 27-29
• Ghost Stories for Christmas, Spread Eagle Theatre, Dec 3
• Fog Horn Funnies, Spread Eagle Theatre, Dec 6
• South Croydon business breakfast, Dec 13
• South Croydon business breakfast, Jan 24

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