Warlingham rugby club has the X Factor

The Hamsey Green, Surrey-based club has been celebrating the successes of two of its former junior players - Jonathan Gill, who with his boy band JLS finished runner-up in the ITV talent show, and Tim Catling, who ran-in three tries for Oxford University in the Varsity Match at Twickenham.

Catling in action for Warlingham at Twickenham as an 11-year-old

Both attended Whitgift School in South Croydon, where they played in the school’s teams alongside Danny Cipriani, the Wasps and England fly-half.

Gill - or JB as he is known in the group - celebrated his 22nd birthday last week. He played for Warlingham and Surrey through to under-18 level, where according to former team mate Rory Child, “He was a good wing and centre but decided to go down the music route in the end.”

Gill returned to Croydon in the week before his TV final to perform before 3,000 screaming fans at the Fairfield Halls. 

“He’d be welcome to perform at our Hamsey Green clubhouse any time,” joked Derek Child, his former club coach.

On the X Factor, judge Simon Cowell told Gill and JLS that despite their defeat in the public vote to Alexandra, he still expects them to have a high-profile pop career, dubbing them the best band ever to appear on the show.

 Jonathan Gill playing for Warlingham's under-18s three years ago

Catling also learned his rugby playing for Warlingham's minis and junior sides, before becoming becoming the first Oxford student in 88 years to score a hat-trick of tries in the Varsity Match, as Oxford beat Cambridge 33-29.

Catling, though,  already had experience of playing in a winning team at Twickenham. Ten years ago, he had played an important part when Warlingham’s youngsters won an under-11s age-group final at Headquarters.

Warlingham U11s team at Twickenham (Catling front row, to the left of coach Derek Child)

“He was a bit of a beanpole even then,” Derek Child recalls, "but he always was a very good rugby player, and very quick." Catling, 21, is now 6ft 3in tall and weighs 15st. He is reading Oriental studies at Pembroke College.

Catling's Warlingham sides, who included the London 3SE club's current first XV full back Rory Child, twice played at Twickenham, winning both times in national age group competitions. “Tim was an elusive fly half with a step that often sliced through the opposition’s defence,” his former team mate remembers.

Catling left Warlingham at 15, when signed up by the London Irish Academy, but they never offered him a playing contract. After his Oxford performance, he is considering playing rugby full-time once he has completed his degree studies - which will require a long-term visit to Japan next year.

"First and foremost I have got another year of studies at Oxford but I'd like to take my rugby career to the highest level it can go," Catling said.

Warlingham coaches are still working hard to help a number of players take their rugby to the highest level it can go - with the club’s members at Caterham School enjoying a particularly strong season, into the fifth round of the Daily Mail Vase at under-18 level, and unbeaten in 15 regular season matches so far.

It has placed Caterham second in the Evening Standard's schools rugby league.

Warlingham’s players at Caterham include Academy captain Matt Foulds, who recently had a trial for the south-east England regional team, hooker Chris Elliott and fellow forwards Ali Brown and Chris Munns, plus scrum half Ben Lewis and Sam Fullerlove.

The same group of players was unbeaten when playing at under-16 level, and they are hoping to set a school record by becoming the first Caterham 1st XV to be undefeated in regular fixtures, which would mark a suitable swansong of the school’s head coach, Pat Lavery, who retires at the end of this academic year.

There are strong Warlingham-Caterham links: also coaching rugby at the school is Warlingham’s first XV captain Tom Street, who leads his side in the London 3SE league fixture at Purley John Fisher this coming Saturday.

Warlingham, after having last weekend off, are hoping to have several first team regulars fit for selection. Street missed last month’s 20-9 victory over PJF at Hamsey Green due to concussion, but is hopeful his side can claim another win to maintain the pressure at the top of the league table.