The Surrey Under 22's Competition is designed to give former Colts players from Surrey clubs who have either started work or have gone off to university etc etc.. the opportunity of playing for their club in their own tough Under 22's competition. The primary purpose of the competition is simple: to keep these Uni / Gap Year based players firmly connected to their home club whilst they’re all away.

For this season, we have had close to 35 x Under 22's play for us over the match at Christmas and the Eater Monday matches. For Finals Day on Easter Monday, we had a strong squad of 25 players, most of whom had recently returned from a very successful 4 x day Under 22 Tour to Seville! All I’ll say is that there is nothing finer nor better for binding a squad than a great Tour!

Before Christmas we had a tough match against Richmond Under 22's: having been outplayed in the 1st half, we managed to claw it back and find the win in the 2nd half. Our success against Richmond meant that we were in the top Pool for the John Douglas Cup on Finals Day – this is the top cup competition for Surrey Under 22's. The Finals Day was hosted by Cobham RFC and in our Pool, we would be facing Reeds Weybridge, Cobham and Wimbledon. It was going to a very tight and a very tough series of matches indeed!!

Match 1 – Reeds v Barnes: Our 25-player squad was made up of 17 Forwards and 8 Backs. So, we decided to start fast and start hard with our biggest pack – with a 9-1 Bokke-style forward / back split on the bench!! Reeds were strong and threw themselves into the match which rightly shocked us. But our big pack stormed back and put the pressure on Reeds. 30 mins goes very quickly when you’re playing cup matches but within that time the Barnes Battlers scored 3 (Jack B, Tom W and Ben W) with Ned W getting 2 out of 3 conversions and got the Win. Reeds managed to sneak a converted try in the latter stages. Barnes 19-7 Reeds.

Match 2 – Cobham v Barnes: Cobham had only just lost to Wimbledon in their 1st match (0-7), and so they were hurting and well up for a battle, especially as this was their home turf – well actually their home 4G! It was back and forth for the full 30 minutes with both sides defending massively with only a small number of mistakes. Cobham scored a converted try and we fought hard to get our two tries (Finn R and Shea McC). Although Ned W couldn’t manage the conversions, he hit a blinder of a penalty – right in front of the posts ? – to finish the game Barnes 13-7 Cobham.

Match 3 – Barnes v Wimbledon: This was going to be the decider given that Wimbledon had beaten Reeds in their second match (7-0). They had a big side with some skilful ball players but our total commitment to, and trust in, each other shone through massively! It was tight; it was tough; it was tiring, but with 3 x tries (Ben W, Freddie H and Hal K) and a conversion (Ned W) and only 1 x converted try and penalty against us, we came out on top!! Barnes 17-10 Wimbledon

Since covid, when we decided to start on the Barnes Under 22's journey, we knew the lads had the necessary skill and talent. But for the squad to develop each season and become an enduring winning side with tons of determination and resilience, we were clear that we would always focus on squad culture, on friendship, on commitment, on loyalty and on fun! And Touring was a major part of their development as a squad. This year it was an amazing 4-day Tour to Seville where all of these qualities were practised and polished. It was clear that these same qualities flooded out in abundance onto every pitch for each of these Cup matches.

Massive congratulations to the current playing squad; you’ve made us all so proud! But also, huge praise and thanks go to the Under 23 players who started us off when they were on their own as U20s (post-covid) and who won the Smith/Shenton Under 22 Cup in their first season. These guys have stayed totally committed to the squad and are the leaders for the future.

What an amazing end to the 2024/25 season for the Under 23s; well done guys!!