Supported Teams Blog

It's been a fantastic year for local Kickboxing Team, the Isle of Wight Panthers, with more exciting events coming for the end of the year.

In October Harvey will be competing in the Bristol Open Tournament and some of the team will compete at Cimac Super league Tournament. In December, Dominic will represent Team GB at the European Championships. And finally towards the end of the year, members of the Isle of Wight Panthers will be competing in the WKO Ring sport tournament on the mainland.

Good luck everyone!

Starlight Academy have had a fantastic year, competing at several regional, national, and international dance events.

They were named as ‘Best Overall Dance School at both Hotshots and So You Want to Dance. They also took home the teacher’s award at Supreme Wiltshire and competed at the ‘Global Dance Open’ for the first time.

This year, two members of the Academy’s senior team have successfully gained places in professional full-time education in performing arts. To add to this, four students were awarded scholarships for prestigious mainland dance courses, while other Starlight dancers were recognised with awards and prizes for stand out performances at competitions.

The dance academy travelled to Kent to compete in national heats, where five junior dancers were to represent England across 12 events. The girls from the Isle of Wight came away with two 4th place trophies, one 3rd and one 2nd. Two young students, Lily and Diwata, came away as World Champions in under 10s lyrical duets.

England came 6th overall during a great week of dancing in the Netherlands, not only did the girls get compete at a global level, with were also privileged to train with world renowned choreographers during this year.

Incredible achievements for the students of Starlight Academy!

East Cowes Vics have had an unbelievable start to the season. As of 25th September Vics are top of Wessex League Div 1 with 7 wins from our opening 8 games. In October they'll be heading up to Gloucestershire to play Fairford Town FC in the FA Vase 1st Round.

East Cowes Vics will also be playing US Portsmouth FC in the Wessex League Cup 2nd Round after winning 4-3 on penalties against island rivals Newport FC, when the game ended 2-2 at Beatrice Avenue.  

Well done and Good luck!

As Ventnor Rugby Club begins the celebration of their 50th Anniversary, they kicked off the Hampshire League with the 1st XV home game against Andover & Fleet and their 2nd XV game away at Chichester. Ventnor Rugby Club has had excellent summer not just with their games but within their training and doing their bit for their local community.

Ventnor Rugby Club will be  introducing their new 1st and 2nd XV rugby kit in the next coming months commemorate their 50th Anniversary.

The IOW Panthers have been keeping busy this year.

They took part in the GB Nationals, coming away with two gold medals and two bronze medals.

The Panthers held their first interclub competition at the Panthers Dojo, which was a huge success and a great experience for many junior fighters.

They also travelled to Wales to compete with a team of 11 fighters, who all placed with medals!

Next up, the team have another Interclub comp planned, as well as tournaments towards the end of the year.

Panthers team member, Harvey Abbott will be representing Team GB at the World Championships this August!

Well done team, and good luck, Harvey!

The Vectis Equestrian Team recently travelled to Dorset to compete at Morton. 

The Senior Group won their section, and even qualified for the British Riding Clubs National Championships that will be held in Lincoln in September.

Junior rider, Mollie Sheath also qualified for the same competition in her junior class.

The team took home plenty of ribbons from this competition.

Dressage rider, Julie Hoskyns, a competitor, and committee member of Vectis Equestrian Club, travelled to Sparsholt College in Winchester to take part in the preliminary level competition at British Dressage, riding her horse Severine.

They placed 2^nd and 5^th and managed to qualify for the Pet Plan Area Festival in August. 

Severine is a 5-year-old Chestnut Oldenburg mare and is only just starting her competitive journey. This was only her second event on the mainland, and she has a lot to learn but shows great potential.

This year for Severine is a ‘training’ year which means they are going to different venues to gain experience. Their next outing will be the two-day show at "The Festival of Dressage" where Julie hopes to qualify Severine and her mare, Pauldary's Amaretto for the dressage to Music Area Festival, before going on to do Riding Club qualifiers for dressage and showjumping at Moreton in Dorset in July.

Well done Julie and Severine, we can't wait to see your progression!

Over twenty members of Ventnor Rugby Club including players, management and supporters travelled to the Midlands last month to play in a charity rugby event for The Nags Charity Barbarians.

The Nags are a charity rugby team that have been playing biannually for ten years, raising much needed funds for Cancer Research UK. To date, they have managed to raise over £210,000! This was the first time that Ventnor RFC had been represented at such an event, not just on the playing front.

All the layers played with fantastic commitment and proudly promoted the playing standard at the club.

The event at Tewkesbury RFC managed to raise over £30,000 pushing them ever so close to the quarter of a million milestone.

What a great event to be a part of and an amazing amount of money raised for a fantastic charity!

It’s been a busy few weeks for Ventnor Rugby Club, supporting the community and local events at their ground. 

The club recently entertained several mainland mini-rugby clubs totalling over 1,300 kids and parents enjoying themselves at Watcombe. The clubhouse, car parks and bar saw frenzied action but thanks to their hard-working band of volunteers, everyone got their fair share of bacon rolls and cups of tea. Despite the touch-and-go weather, the club received excellent feedback from the families who are already looking forward to next year!

Later, 3000 lycra-clad cyclists came by on the Randonnee for a pit stop to use the clubhouse as a marshalling post and feeding station. With a samba band adding to the colourful spectacle.

A great effort from everyone involved with will allow the club to donate to the Luke Orton and Team Teddy charities!

Junior Vectis Equestrian Member, Freya Jones and her lovely pony Bleu, recently travelled to the Riding Club competition held at Moreton EC.

Frey and Bleu placed 1^st in their class in the Area Combined Challenge!

Well done both!

A member of the IOW Panther Kickboxing team, Harvey Abbott has been selected to represent Team GB for the second year!

Harvey will be heading to Budapest in August to compete at the World Kickboxing Championships in the Full Contact division! The standard does not get higher than this!

Harvey is a great role model for the club showing hard work, respect, and discipline!

Good luck Harvey!

It was a busy weekend for Ventnor Cricket Club with three senior teams representing Ventnor on Saturday and on Sunday, competing in the second round of the Venous Village Cup, a national competition with the chance to play at Lords in the final!

Unfortunately, the game was cancelled but with three other senior teams representing Ventnor, there was more than enough to watch!

Ventnor won with the second XI playing a home game at Steephill against Ellingham by 9 wickets.

Ventnor’s third XI playing a home game in Arreton against an IOW team, Freshwater, won by 5 wickets.

And finally, playing an away game in Northwood against another Island team, Northwood, the fourth XI, Ventnor lost by 6 wickets.

On Sunday, Ventnor’s first XI won against Sarisbury by 9 wickets with some impressive performances, taking them to the third round of the Venous Village Cup!

Well done Ventnor, we can’t wait to see what you do next!

Exciting times for Ventnor Cricket Club as they welcome back Dineth Thimodya, an overseas player for the 2024 season.

“I’m really happy to be back. I’ve loved my time playing for Ventnor over the years and can’t wait for the season to start”

Unfortunately, the British weather put a halt to their recent 1^st Xi fixture, but we’re excited to see what they get up to now the weather is picking up!

On Good Friday, the East Cowes Vics Football Club played Newport IOW in a Wessex League 1 match.

East Cowes Vics won 1-0 with the goal scored by Jez Conway in the first half!

This was the first league victory against Newport in over 30 years! To top the win off, the game was played out in front of the league's biggest crowd of the season with 565 people filling out Beatrice Avenue, home of East Cowes Vics.

Five young girls from The Starlight Academy have been chosen to represent England in the very prestigious dance competition, the Global Dance Open Finals in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, this summer!

Aged just eight and nine years old, the five girls will travel to the competition this July to compete in Ballet, Jazz, Street and Acro sections.

Auriella, Aria, Imogen, Diwata and Lily will go up against dancers from all around the world, including Italy, Spain, Australia, Canada and South Africa after qualifying in a previous competition, in Sevenoaks, Kent.

Well done girls, this is an amazing achievement, we can’t wait to hear how you get on in July!

NAUT Cycling took part in their first road event of the race season!

Over 50 riders turned up for this event with NAUT members featuring in four teams. A damp and overcast morning for the first time trial event of the season: a 3-up effort along the Military Road, on the Pearl 10 course. Two team members, Eric Wiliams and James Heng had a particularly impressive ride, finishing 6th overall, being the highest placed team of junior riders! One team, featuring Chris Till, wasn’t so lucky, having pushed hard to post the 2nd fastest time, they lost a rider to a mechanical and was disqualified. Alex Paul, Martin Piper and Steve Taylor pulled together to take 7th Place! The trio, including Martin Jackson, took the 13th fastest tie of the event!

Well done, team! We look forward to hearing more!

Vectis Equestrian Club recently sent over three of their members, Paige Richards, Amelia Collins and Charlotte McCoullgh to compete at the British Riding Clubs Area Winter Dressage, held at Crofton Manor.

Paige Richards placed 2^nd in her senior section, with Charlotte placing 2^nd in the juniors! This was Amelia’s first time competing with Vectis, finishing in the top ten in her class!

Well done, girls!