Thank you to those of you who competed in teams in a virtual race from Camberley to Sucy-en-Brie, our twin town in France this weekend. You cycled, ran or walked over 12,300 km – enough to take us to Chicago and back!

The first team to arrive in Sucy-en-Brie were the #camberleycocktails women’s team, completing their 399 km trip in an impressive seven hours. Part two of the challenge was then to travel the furthest, with the winning team “The Green Laces”, comprising children from our U9, U10 and U11 teams and their parents and even grandparents, “travelling” all the way to southern Spain.

“Our main purpose was to foster a greater sense of community across our whole club and re-engage our members in advance of a potential return to rugby in the spring,” said Kim Johnson and Matt Searle, joint event organisers and comms leads for the club. They continued: “We certainly had some competitive fun along the way and for our participants to have travelled such a huge distance in just 36 hours gives us a real sense of pride.”

Here’s what some of our section leads, coaches and squad managers had to say:

Antony Bentham, 1st XV Senior Men’s Team Manager

“It was a great weekend for the senior men engaging over 25 players over the two days. It puts us in a great position once we return to rugby. There was some friendly competition amongst the group and special mentions go to Tom Chennell and Connor Diplock both completing bikes rides over 100 km. Prop Josh Thundercliff completed ten 5 km runs over the weekend – an incredible effort.”

Kim Johnson Lead Coach CRFC Women’s Team

“This weekend has been a real buzz: the effort of the Women’s Team was outstanding with 30 players, coaches and our admin team contributing to this incredible club event plus a few loyal supporters stepping out for the #camberleycocktails. It's really lifted everyone's spirits, ready for the return to rugby.”

Craig Dyason, Junior Academy Squad Manager

“It was a tough weekend for our Academy players – without XBOX live or PlayStation network going down, we were always fighting a losing battle! A big thank you to those who took time out of their weekend to take part. Final results: Junior Academy 472.76 km vs Senior Academy 392.4 km with the parents (797.04 km) taking the bragging rights over the players (68.12 km). Rob Davis managed to clock up 208.45 km with honourable mentions to Stewart Johnson (142.26 km) and Sarah Phillip (50.16 km).”

Nicky Bundock, U14s squad manager

“After such a challenging year, this event really brought our club together. The involvement from whole families was just awesome. My squad members really enjoyed it, working right to the end to increase our kms! We even had our dog mascot wearing our Camberley colours – it felt like a great event to get us back in the team spirit of rugby!”

Steph Haines, U13s squad manager

“It’s with great pleasure that I can say the coaches Paul Jackson, Gareth Bray, Neil Dethick, Jason Morris and Tony Sandells led the way for the U13s with a collective mileage of nearly 300 km, with great support from many other team members. We even managed a 60th birthday boy walking with the Walsh’s! A fantastic weekend with a total of 974.91 km.”

Jay Wilcox, Mini Chair

“I am so proud of the entire mini section collectively covering over 4,800 km and finishing 1st and 3rd. More importantly though, I’m proud of our community recognising the importance of the kids being active with their families for both physical and mental wellbeing. I was amazed this morning on my bike ride to see so many Camberley shirts out and about. From Bagshot to Fleet, via Watchetts I observed SCRUFFs, Vets, Cocktails and mini players walking, running and cycling. Everyone gave a wave, a cheery "morning" along with some competitive banter and most importantly there was a real sense of club community.”

Kevin Scott, U11s comms lead

“What a fantastic weekend with the U11s and their families really getting involved with the challenge. Saturday morning saw a flurry of activity which kept up for the whole weekend. Running, cycling, some very well exercised dogs and constantly pinging WhatsApp updates have really got the team spirit going ahead of the return to rugby. It was great to see so many family efforts, and some inter family rivalries driving up the mileage too! Special mention to the Houghton family with Simon clocking up the biggest single figure with 49km of cycling.”

Muhsin Subhan, U9s coach

“Some amazing efforts were put in by the U9s – from both the squad members themselves and their families. James Gillam set an amazing early target on Saturday, running over two miles on the treadmill. Not to be outdone, the squad took the challenge head on and there were four separate efforts of over ten miles on the bike from Will Lewis (and his dad Tim), Cohen Nicholas and Aidan Marsh-Chennell. Adrian Cunningham’s 23 km was not planned but when his Dad managed to get lost, the distance kept ticking up! It was great to see whole family groups get together for this great event and getting ready for the return of rugby at Watchett’s Park.”

Kieron Martin, U8s coach

“Being the smallest players of CRFC, our “little legs” certainly pulled out all the stops to give the biggies a run for their money and bring home the bronze medal overall with almost 1,900 km for our Kinders, U7s and U8s! Our squads really enjoyed getting stuck into this challenge and blowing away the cobwebs ready to get back on to the pitch. It really does show what a family feel our club has created.”

Where shall we “travel to” next?

comms@camberleyrugbyclub.co.uk