Hello everybody, a very Happy New Year to you! I hope this finds you and yours well, and that you have enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and holiday break. An impressive away win at Tunbridge Wells RFC on December 20th saw the 1st XV end the year on a high. Saturday January 10th 2026 (our next game) sees the CS Stags embark on match day 14 in the Regional 1, South Central League, and the club stands fifth out of twelve teams at this point – won 8, lost 5, 43 points in the bag, including a total of 11 bonus points, and a +/- tally of positive 169 (second highest in the league). Our 2nd XV Staghounds also ended the year 2025 more than holding their own in a very tough Surrey Reserves league, the Gauchos ROC London Shield, in fifth place out of 10 teams, on 26 points, with 4 wins, 1 draw, and 3 losses. This league is being reorganised post-New Year to go into the second round matches (bottom team Chinnor have since dropped out), followed by top 4 and bottom 4 mini leagues after that. It is fair to say the club stands heads high at the start of year 2026!

• The rest of the season in front of us.

First up is our neighbours Hammersmith & Fulham RFC away, on Saturday 10th January 2026, Hurlingham Park, London SW6 3RH – 2.00 p.m. kick off. Then follows a home game against Bracknell RFC on 17th January 2026, and following a break week, an away game against Camberley RFC on 31st January 2026. Further break weeks in February due to the Six Nations home matches for England, sees only two Stags matches scheduled – home to Jersey RFC on 14th February, and away to Wimbledon RFC on 28th February. So, lots to savour and look forward to, before the last six matches in March and April to finish the season with. Please note that the end of this season shall see some play offs (a possible 3 extra matches), to decide both for promotion and relegation places, and this is due to the rearrangement of the league numbers as decided by the RFU. The first and last position in each league shall be automatically promoted and relegated as usual. However, for an additional promotion place to National 2, there will be an initial play off between 2nd and 3rd place teams in both Regional 1 South Central (our league), and Regional 1 South East leagues on Saturday 25th April 2026. The winners of those two play offs shall then play each other on Saturday 2nd May 2026. The winner of that then faces the 12th place team in National 2 East in the decider on Saturday 9th May 2026. A similar scenario for retention of Regional 1 status, or relegation, plays itself out at the bottom of the table, with a play-off between 9th and 10th place on 25th April – the winner staying up, the loser hosting the winner of the Regional 2 Accession finals for a place in Regional 1 on 9th May 2026.

• Save the dates – key home match days for Sponsors, Former Players, and Supporters pre-match lunches.

Saturday 7th March 2026, we have our home fixture against London Scottish Lions, that we share the ground at Kings House School Sports Ground with. Having lost out to the Lions end of November at the away fixture, amidst bagpipes a blowing, Stags will be keen to repay the compliment at our home game. Saturday 28th March 2026, Stags play Farnham at home, and this is our club designated Sponsors, Former Players, and Supporters Day. Having seen such a good turnout of former players and friends on 13th December 2025 for the previous day, it will be great to see a good many of you again for pre-match lunch and the game to follow, and enjoy another grand day of rugby and fellowship. More details to follow in due course, but do please confirm your place early with either Nick Alway or David Chaytor.

• England International Tickets – updates!

1. Only a month to go before the Six Nations begin in February 2026! We still have ticket availability seated together for the following: England v Wales Saturday 07 February 2026 - 16.40 kick off, and England v Ireland Saturday 21 February 2026 - 14.10 kick off. Plus, four tickets for the away match against France at Stade de France, Saturday 14 March 2026, kick off 20.10 – still going a begging. So please get your Six nations requests in a.s.a.p.
2. Ricky Hollamby (Club Treasurer) shall be taking over the club’s international ticket allocation and distribution in the new year. Thank you to all who have dealt with Graham Clucas and David Chaytor these past years, and we please ask you to give Ricky your full support and cooperation going forward. Ricky’s email address is ricky_hollamby@hotmail.com – so please deal with Ricky for your future enquiries for England international ticket availability.
3. There are indeed November 2026 England home matches being played, but this has been re-branded as the Nations Championship this year, a 12 team tournament, and shall take place every two years. The tournament is designed to align northern and southern hemisphere rugby calendars, guaranteeing high-profile fixtures to add more structure and meaning to the existing international windows between World Cups.

England away matches are as follows: July 2026 (No club allocation for these)

South Africa v England: Saturday 4 July
Fiji v England: Saturday 11 July
Argentina v England: Saturday 18 July

The home pool match details are as follows: November 2026
England v Australia: Sunday 8 November, KO 15:10
England v Japan: Saturday 14 November, KO 16:40
England v New Zealand: Saturday 21 November, KO 14:10
This will be followed by a “Finals Weekend” - Friday 27 / Saturday 28 /Sunday 29 November 2026:
Friday 27 November, 6 v 6 final - KO 16:40 followed by the 3 v 3 final - KO 20:10
Saturday 28 November, 5 v 5 final - KO 13:10 followed by the 2 v 2 final - KO 16:40
Sunday 29 November, 4 v 4 final KO 13:10 followed by the 1 v 1 final - KO 16:40
Tickets for England home games in November are due to be released Thursday 22 January 2026 at 10.00 a.m. for club allocation, so please let Ricky have your requests for the games you wish to see.

• Volunteers and membership

Following last month’s newsletter appeal, we would still welcome any volunteers to assist the club with day to day running. There are various roles and tasks available in coaching, team assistants, admin, media presentation, RFU liaison etc., and this would not only help the club greatly, but also hopefully offer satisfaction and a sense of team benefit to the holder. Please put your hand up, or let the committee members know if you are interested. Also please recommend to any suitable interested parties you may know of that would like to get involved. Thank you.

• Membership:

Here are the membership options again. Your membership, sponsorship, and donations help the club a great deal – thank you!

Playing -
- Annual £250 either straight into the club account or via this link - https://buy.stripe.com/7sY5kDa5na9g1oPfoG5os0c
- Quarterly £60 upfront £55 per quarter via this link - https://buy.stripe.com/28EdR92CV1CK2sT4K25os0b
- Monthly £60 up front £20 a month, via this link - https://buy.stripe.com/4gMeVddhza9gaZpfoG5os0a
- Players Sponsorship - £350 either straight into the club account (in group bio) or via this link - https://buy.stripe.com/cNidR9a5n8189VlfoG5os0d
If you have an existing direct debit set up from last year, please cancel it, otherwise it'll keep charging.

Non-Playing -
- Affiliate Membership - £120 into the club account or £15 a month via the link - https://buy.stripe.com/dRm6oHcdv8185F5gsK5os0g
- Social Membership - £300 into the account or £30 a month via the link - https://buy.stripe.com/28E00jb9r2GO6J9ekC5os0f
- Full Membership - £1,000 into the account or £100 a month via the link - https://buy.stripe.com/6oU28rgtL818d7xccu5os0e

Club bank details included here, should you wish to do this direct electronically, rather than through the Stripe link on the Pitchero CS Stags 1863 club web site:

CS RUGBY 1863 / 56-00-33 / 48028053

• Please note the England Rugby website links to fixtures, results, and tables, and stats also printed out below:

Links to for you to follow:
1st XV fixtures, results, tables, and stats
https://www.englandrugby.com/fixtures-and-results/search-results?team=5987&season=2025-2026#fixtures
2nd XV fixtures, results, tables, and stats
https://www.englandrugby.com/fixtures-and-results/search-results?division=73552&competition=1729&season=2025-2026#fixtures
Current league tables also posted below: For updates on Fixtures / Results / League Tables please check on all three sites linked. Weekend Fixtures and Match Reports are posted regularly on all three sites – under “News” on Pitchero – plus with added photographs available from the matches to enjoy under “Media/Albums.” Match reports also often contain additional photos, plus a link to Shell Patrick’s photos, and we are grateful to her for coming along on a Saturday to take these shots.

For Stage 2 Gauchos ROC London Shield Stage – Chinnor have now dropped out, and the league table goes back to zero again. The new Stage 2 revised fixtures, results, and table can be viewed on the England Rugby website – link below:

https://www.englandrugby.com/fixtures-and-results/search-results?division=73552&competition=1729&season=2025-2026#fixtures

Links to CS Stags 1863 websites on Pitchero, Facebook, and LinkedIn below:
https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/civilservicefootballclubru/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/civilstags
https://www.linkedin.com/company/66883452/admin/page-posts/published/

David Chaytor – Chairman CS Stags 1863
Tel: 07976 609 081 - Email: dchaytor@virginmedia.com

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CS Stags 1863 New Years 2026 Newsletter

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