News

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.

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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 ...

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.

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!

Well, that was a fantastic event – our thanks and congratulations go to VX Hong Kong for a wonderful V2 World Championships. As we continue to rebuild after the Covid pandemic we have finally managed to have our first V2 World Championships. The Covid restrictions were lifted late in Hong Kong which meant that the organising committee were under immense pressure – they could not postpone for Covid reasons any longer otherwise they would have lost their deposit so had to organise the event with a short lead time. This also put other countries under pressure for getting things in place to travel. We had 6 countries confirming that they wished to participate – Hong Kong, England, Kenya, Uganda, India and Pakistan, however the short lead time and other circumstances conspired to make it very difficult for them. The cost of flights from the UK has more than doubled so a number of players were forced to pull out as they simply could not afford the flights. Kenya were unable to get the funding they had requested, the visas for Pakistan did not arrive in time and India suffered catastrophic flooding affecting the players who were due to travel. Uganda got some funding but not for all the players they wanted to send. This meant that the event went right back to our first ever V2 World Championships! That first event had only three countries, too so, as things turned out, this was hugely symbolic. So how did it go? The event was well-organised by VX Hong Kong- they had organised a superb venue with accommodation and squash courts – the HillTop Country Club. Players registered for the event on the Thursday and had the briefing and then things kicked off on the Friday with group matches, four groups of six players each. The top two in each group would go through to the knockout stages, the next two would go through to the knockout of the Craig Buttery Trophy and the bottom two would be eliminated. What was impressive was the progress that the players in Hong Kong have made. It was wonderful to see some old faces and to meet new faces who are making great progress with a number of players attracting a lot of interest and admiration. England’s Paul Hildreth, who had come out of retirement specifically for this event, had a shock in his first game, winning by a mere four points as Hong Kong players gave a statement of intent! Into the knockout stages and Uganda’s Mukaga John ‘Brilliant’ Brian was making spectacular progress, former World Champion Tom Hildreth was giving a masterclass as he moved through his matches. Then we reached the semi finals of the V2 World Championships – Ka Lok of Hong Kong against Mukaga John ‘Brilliant’ Brian of Uganda, and Englands Tom Hildreth and Paul Hildreth faced each other. We think that this is the first time a father and son have competed against each other in a V2 World Championships. Although Paul fought hard Tom won by 20 points to progress to the final. The other semi was a high-octane affair between to high-energy players. Unfortunately for him Mukaga caught Ka Lok in the face with the VstiX and attracted a penalty (for being too close) and then also attracted a penalty for travelling and ended up losing 70-68 and going into the 3rd place play off against veteran Paul Hildreth. The third place play off proved to be an interesting contrast of styles – Brian using his energetic style to try to overwhelm his much older opponent, however Paul brought all his experience to bear to try to control the game, doing enough to win 69-65 and grab a podium place. # The penultimate match was the Craig Buttery final, contested between Sonny and Oscar, both of Hong Kong. Oscar took the match 88-75 to claim his first trophy. Then came the final with Tom taking no chances and calling on all his experience to dominate the match and beat Ka Lok 102-56. All that remained were the presentations to be made by the Guests of Honour and then the end of tournament celebrations hosted by VX Hong Kong. Our thanks go to the Guests of Honour and to the team at VX Hong Kong. Our congratulations go to Tom Hildreth for becoming World Champion for the 4th time, to Oscar for winning the Craig Buttery trophy, to ALL the players and officials for their participation, and to VX Hong Kong for organising the rebirth of the V2 World Championships.

Paul recently drove down to Kirkby in Ashfield in Nottinghamshire to spend the day at Outwood Academy Kirkby for the launch event of the Academy as a VX Centre of Excellence. This development has been driven by the awesome Steph Kennedy and her enthusiastic colleague Paul Smith - the dynamic duo! The day saw students from across the year groups come for dedicated VX sessions. After the school day, Steph had invited local primary schools to come along for a taster session. Paul thoroughly enjoyed the day working with the students and sports leaders, saying the youngsters were a credit to the school and staff. Steph and her colleague Paul have great ideas and big plans to represent and grow our amazing sport in the local area, thinking of a regular school club, primary school competitions, secondary school competitions and regional Outwood competitions. VX is already embedded in the Outwood curriculum and Steph and Paul use it to deliver a number of areas. We could do with more 'champions' like these two who recognise the benefits that VX brings. Well done to Steph and Paul and to Outwood who gave their backing to this initiative. Thank you also to the youngsters at Outwood Kirkby for their enthusiastic participation.

OK, this is not one of our normal blog posts – it’s not VX news, but it IS something we feel we really have to write about. One of our good friends and supporters is called Stuart Stead. He runs Creative Software Limited, has developed our membership system and sponsors Global VX. He’s just launched Business Guardian Angel. What’s that we hear you ask – well it isn’t an app to protect businesses but to improve the safety and security of people. The first version is aimed at the business market. We think back to Suzy Lamplugh who was an estate agent and was murdered by a prospect she met at a property. This app is designed to give people added security and peace of mind in such situations and in many other situations, too. When an organisation implements Business Guardian Angel they will set up a ‘group’ of users. The app has two functions – HelpMe and TrackMe. With HelpMe, if a user feels threatened or intimidated or needs help urgently they can activate a call for help by a simple button press or a voice command. The system will immediately start an audio recording and send a notification to the group, one of whom will take ownership of the call. This sends an audible notification to the user that the call for help has been acknowledged. The supervisor can listen to the first short recording and decide what action to take – eg initiating a video call from within the app or calling the police. Simply hearing that help is on the way might deter some perpetrators, but even if the situation continues the system will continue to record (gathering evidence) and showing the location on a map. The supervisor can continue to monitor the location and liaise with the emergency services. This is perfect for any organisation that has employees out in the field – care workers, council workers, social services, estate agents, just to name a few. It is an ideal tool for the HR department to look after workers in their organisation – if someone is being subjected to bullying or harassment this system can gather evidence. The second function, TrackMe, can be switched on at the beginning of a journey. Again, a member of the group will take ownership and will be able to monitor the journey. There are far too many occurrences where a person goes missing on the way to or from work or to some other destination. This app would be invaluable in those cases. Following the release of Business Guardian Angel, Family Guardian Angel is also due to be launched. This is intended to be a free version (funded by advertising). Stuart tells us that times are hard and that he doesn’t want anyone to have to compromise their safety because they can’t afford it. As far as we are concerned every business and every family should have this – it’s perfect for families with kids - parents can track the kids on the way home, it can solve playground bullying situations. It’s even useful in cases of domestic abuse. Women walking alone, university students – there are so many applications. Everyone should have it. At VX International we are very proud that we were the first business to sign up for this for our core staff who travel and are out on the road. www.theguardianangelservice.com Please share this – everyone should be using this!

We get it - times are hard for everyone, families and businesses and in schools and colleges budgets are ever more squeezed. We have therefore decided that it is time to hold a Spring Sale. We've never held a sale before - we've not needed to, but we thought this was maybe a way in which we could help. For our Spring Sale we are offering 30% of all VstiX and Carry Bags. That includes VstiX Pro, XVstiX Junior and the remaining limited edition Predators. We have already had a great response to this from people who are delighted with the reduction and we hope that it will make a substantial difference to any individual or organisation considering purchasing VstiX. The sale will run until April 30th 2023 and until then it will replace all other discounts. If you want to take advantage of the sale please email Paul on pmh@vxinternational.com