Camberley RFU give £1565.75 to the Kent Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance at their rugby festival on Sunday.
Over 800 children took part in a highly successful rugby festival at the Watchetts Recreation Ground on Sunday and at the end of the festival a cheque was presented to the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance. The money was raised by Camberley Rugby Club at their Club Annual Ball.
The festival attracted six clubs from around the area with children ranging between 6 and 12 years-old. The clubs that took part in the event were Camberley, Sutton and Epsom, Drifters, Guilfordians, Dorking and Old Reigatians.
Steve Dowley from the Kent Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance said: “Camberley Rugby Football Club have been very generous in raising and donating this amount of money today which is absolutely fantastic.
“This money will be used to buy life saving equipment, units of blood and medication. All the things we need to help save lives on the air ambulance.”
Each age group at the festival was split into pools; however, there was no overall winner. It was purely for the love of the sport.
All the children that took part in the festival came away with a medal which was presented in an awards ceremony by the days VIPS which included; the Deputy Mayor, the Deputy Mayoress, Deputy Head Teacher from Salesian College, Head teacher from South Camberley School, Head teacher from the Grove school, a representative from Kent Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance, the captain of Camberley’s 1st XV and two players from their 2nd XV teams.
However, a special award was given out by Salesian College. They sponsored a player of the festival award, which meant one player from each team in each age group were given a separate award.
The VIP’s were also joined by Camberley RFC’s mascot, Cyril the Squirrel, to have a photo the all the children following their awards ceremony.
The age groups participating included the Mini’s, Under-7s, U8s, U9s, U10s, U11s and U12s.
Refereeing the U12 matches were four trainee referees from the Camberley RFC Academy, who were supported by their mentors for each match.
Deputy Mayor, Cllr John Winterton said: “I came here today knowing, practically nothing about rugby but having watched the children and the young people doing what they do, I'm amazed and impressed with the quality of the players and the organisations and the enthusiasm of the kids.
“It's a great asset of the community of Surrey Heath to have an organisation like this functioning here on a regular basis.”

Report by Adam Tomlinson Picture by Lauren Allen