Our first club twinning

Paul Hildreth • 13 May 2021

Ripon VX Club twin with Canaan VX Club in Lugazi, Uganda

Ripon VX Club are delighted to announce their official twinning with the Canaan VX Club from Lugazi in Uganda.

As the Yorkshire-born sport of VX continues its steady growth in Africa, the Ripon VX Club demonstrates its position as one of the UK’s leading clubs by becoming the first club to be twinned with a club abroad.

Ripon have enjoyed a high degree of success under the leadership of Head Coach Tom Hildreth but the Covid epidemic has had a major impact as it has hit hard. In line with other sports there have been no club sessions and no competition. This does not mean that all activity has ceased, however, and work has gone on behind the scenes to bring this twinning to fruition. This has now been cemented as a donation of equipment has been sent across to Uganda for the club to use.

The twinning was a result of our MD Dr Paul Hildreth, making one of his regular visits to the area to help grow the sport. He spent some time at Canaan High School in Lugazi where he met with the Director Mr Isaac Ssekamwa and introduced VX to the school. Mr Ssekamwa was so delighted with the impact of VX that he agreed to become the patron of VX Uganda and was keen to establish a club and Centre of Excellence in Lugazi.

A number of students at the Canaan High School have qualified as coaches and are set to take leading roles in developing the sport in their country.

Paul said: "I have loved my visits to Lugazi and can't wait to go back.  I am very fond of the kids there and very proud of the progress they have already made, both as players and as young coaches.  I am looking forward to going back there and also to welcoming some of them to the UK.   With these guys involved the future of VX in Africa is promising."

So what’s next for the clubs? Ripon are looking forward to receiving photos of the equipment in use and being able to link personally with their Uganda friends on line ahead of some Ugandan players being able to visit the Ripon Club.

The final word goes to Mr Ssekamwa, who leads the Canaan VX Club: “We are delighted to have this twinning with such a successful club in the UK and are very grateful for their donation of equipment. We are very keen to make our club a leading club in Uganda and to be at the forefront of the growth of VX in Africa. We already have plans to travel to Kenya to play against the boys from St Peter’s School in Mumias which is the Centre of Excellence for Kenya. We have big plans and hope that some day we can also welcome some players from Ripon here in Uganda”

by Paul Hildreth 18 August 2025
The proactive and inspirational patron of VX Kenya is very keen to see VX spread through schools in Kenya and then into the rest of East Africa. He has just messaged to inform us that they will be showcasing VX at high profile school games that are to be launched by President Rutto. Kenya is to host the East Africa High Schools Games in Western Kenya - there will be participants from Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, South Sudan and Tanzania. We hope this goes well and VX experience the usual response!
by Paul Hildreth 18 August 2025
The team in Hong Kong continue to push forward with the sport and we are delighted to hear that they were one of the sports featured in the Government's Sport for All event. If you remember VX Hong Kong hosted the most recent VX World Championships and this gave a great boost to their efforts. Our thanks go to the team in Hong Kong for their hard work in growing and developing the sport.
by Paul Hildreth 3 April 2025
I have been working closely with some organisations in Africa, predominantly Kenya and Uganda. I did a lot of work with the inspirational Cosmas Nabungolo who was principal of St Peter’s Boys’ School in Mumias. Cosmas has now moved to St Joseph’s nearer Nairobi and is working hard to improve the school and the provision to his young charges. Cosmas has worked hard to develop VX in Kenya and, as you can see, is keen to develop it further and spread it further through East Africa. As part of this he wishes to obtain digital cameras and equipment and, if possible, a drone Is there anyone out there who has any such equipment lying unused and unwanted? It could be put to very good use in Kenya. If you are in a position to help, please get in touch Many thanks
by Paul Hildreth 3 April 2025
You probably don't know but VX was actually launched at the Youth Sport Trust Conference in Feb 2006, in its previous guise as Rock-it-Ball. We attended several YST Conferences but hadn't been back for several years until last year where we met Lucy from PE Office. This year Global VX were back - and Lucy came to join them on the stand. The conference itself was great and having Lucy there was a great help. Not only that, the materials that VX and PE Office have created were available as a free download. VX created a lot of interest, we had several people throwing balls around and we made lots of contacts. Thank you to the YST for a great conference and to Lucy and PE office for their support
by Paul Hildreth 1 April 2025
Last year at the Youth Sport Trust Conference we met Lucy from PE Office. She was interested to hear about VX and we had a good chat. She suggested we should collaborate on the development of VX materials and over the past year we have been doing just that. Between us we have developed a six week module with scheme of work, detailed lesson plans and video clips (filmed at our Regional Centre of Excellence, Outwood Academy, Kirkby - thanks, guys!). The resources are free to download from PE Office - just click this link and follow the instructions: https://zurl.co/XgArD We are delighted with this new relationship and look forward to working more with PE Office in the future.
by Paul Hildreth 19 December 2024
VX is making great strides in Kenya under the leadership of it's inspirational patron Mr Cosmas Nabungolo. In order to support this we were looking forward very much to welcoming two Kenyan players in January so we could qualify them as coaches and give them a thorough VX education. We had a full programme planned including coach qualification, going into schools and VX clubs. We also had sessions planned with some of the top players. We had written letters of support in which we undertook to provide accommodation and subsistence over here and to cater for all their travel needs. We guaranteed to collect them from the airport and then return them to the airport at the end. We found out today that the visas have been refused - on the grounds that (a) they didn't demonstrate enough of a tie to their home country and (b) they don't earn enough therefore the bureaucrats decide they probably aren't going to return to Kenya. One of the girls is a businesswoman with investments and her bank statements have helped people get visas to the US. Knowing it was going to be cold she had bought a whole load of warm clothes and is now well out of pocket. Let's contrast this with what happens to people who come across in rubber dinghies illegally - they are accommodated in 3* or 4* hotels, given smartphones, food, spending money and free access to immigration lawyers. They are also provided with free medical and dental care on site. We are told this costs the country £41,000 per year per person. Like most bureaucrats this lot want an easy life - dealing with the hordes of illegal immigrants is too much like hard work so, to 'show they are tackling immigration' and to go some way to meeting their targets they take the low-hanging fruit, the people who are trying to do things legally, the right way. They're an easy target and this isn't the first time this has happened to us as we try to grow the sport abroad. We have been hit with many problems as we have tried to grow VX but the single biggest obstacle to our development has been - bureaucrats. We are very sorry for the two young ladies who were due to come over and who were excited to spend a couple of weeks gaining a VX education. Girls- we can only apologise.
by Paul Hildreth 8 September 2024
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by Paul Hildreth 10 July 2024
VX has entered into a collaboration with PE Office to produce teaching materials for VX. The first will be a 6-week module of lesson plans with video clips to accompany. We have spent time with the guys from PE Office filming teaching points and skills & drills for the first batch of resources. You can find PE Office at https://peoffice.co.uk For any purchases made through PE Office there will also be an additional discount over and above the standard education discount. vXciting times ...
by Paul Hildreth 8 April 2024
We have just heard from Global VX that the 2024 V2 World Championships that were due to be held in Uganda have unfortunately had to be postponed until 2025. This is due to circumstances beyond the control of Global VX. Global send their apologies to the VX Community and look forward to seeing everyone in Uganda in 2025.
by Paul Hildreth 18 March 2024
This is where it all started. VX, or Rock-it-Ball as it was called then, was launched at the Youth Sports Trust Sports Colleges Conference in Feb 2005 where it was an immediate hit! This was in the days of Sports Colleges, School Sports Partnerships (SSPs) and Partnership Development Managers (PDMs). PDMs couldn't get enough of it - it ticked all their boxes. Best of all was it helped increase participation as it is a sport that is accessible to all. Suddenly there was something for the less-sporty kids. PDMs and schools all over the country adopted the sport at a rate of knots. The YST loved the values of the sport and included it in a number of their programmes including TOP Activity that was supported by Sainsburys. Since then the landscape has changed - no more SSPs and PDMs. There has been changeover of staff and some schools have the equipment but no longer know what to do with it. Even though the landscape has changed VX has made amazing progress: a presence in 26 countries clubs, leagues, tournaments different versions international competition - test match series, annual singles World Cup, 4-yearly team world cup ... The BBC called it 'the best sport you've never heard of' - If you're going to be at the conference why not pop along and see Global VX on stand NGB15 and find out what all the fuss is about - and ask them about the conference discount!