I am excited about catching up with some of the boys tomorrow night at England & Bath hooker, Lee Mears' Testimonial Gala Dinner at the Nursery Pavilion, Lords.

A snapshot of some of the boys attending include Lawrence Dallaglio, Jason Leonard, Danny Cipriani, Phil Vickery, Tom Palmer, Matt Perry, Mike Claasen, Butch James, Matt Stevens, James Haskell, Mark Regan and many more

Fundraising is supporting PRA Benevolent Fund, Wooden Spoon and Willow Foundation - a full lisdt is below and if you are keen to place a reserve on any items, send  me an email at victor.ubogu@vultd.co.uk 

if you are coming, see you tomorrow, if not, I'll fill you in on how the night went.

Everyone wearing the red shirt of Wales in our hospitality facility had to put up with my overly confident pre match prediction of England smashing the Welsh yesterday! A chorus that was repeated by hosts joining me for the day, Peter Richards and Matt Perry.

Things were going according to plan in the first half and I felt the end result would be a lot more than I expected. I was bragging of an England grand slam in the making, sat next to my Sales Executive who happens to be welsh. I even threw a bet in the mix re grand slamming England. Luckily for me she refused the bet!

Suddenly, the switch was turned off. England's game completely deteriorated and at the same time Wales brilliantly succeeded where England had failed, by turning possession into points; scoring two well deserved tries. 

Post match Simon Shaw, Lee Mears, Matt Stevens and Mark Regan popped into our facility - see photo gallery They were all too gutted by the result and couldn't explain where & how it all went wrong.

Third time lucky next year in Cardiff, I hope!

Simply Red topped the bill at our recent Six Nations Nordoff Robbins Charity Dinner at the Royal Lancaster hotel, Hyde Park; they were fantastic!

Well it’s taken me a few days to put pen to paper since the Six Nations Championship Dinner – I enjoyed far too much sauce and, at my age, takes far too long to recover!  This  annual event, sponsored by Entertainment UK raises funds for Nordoff Robins Music Therapy and this year the dinner also paid tribute to the great gentleman of rugby – Matt Perry.

I am telling you – it was such a great night.  I know, I have mentioned some great nights in the past, but this was up there too.  SO many players turned up to support Matt Perry, including many of his Bath colleagues, Danny Grewcock, Steve Borthwick, Butch James, David Flatman, Mark Regan, Lee Mears………..the list goes on and there were also some of the old……well slightly older (I guess I fall into this category and I don’t want to appear too old!) players such as John Hall ********** 

There is always a surprise guest at the dinner and this year it was Simply Red who were simply AMAZING.  That man can SING!  Mick Hucknall and friends played some favorrites including Money is too tight to mention, Stars, Holding back the years and guests were blown away. 

The dinner was a sell out – in fact anyone interested in coming next year should book early.  We ended up turning bookings down as there simply was not the space.  People who came will tell you – this year the room was packed.  And I guess most importantly of all, we ended up raising some significant funds for Norfoff Robins Music Therapy.  I have supported this charity for years, and I know that there are so many worthwhile causes out there, but these guys do some incredible work which really makes a difference peoples lives.

I am just back from Dubai where the VU Ltd party saw some fantastic 7s action- and what a great weekend. In fact it was a bit like the World Cup. There was plenty of drinking, meeting up with old rugby pals and some great rugby. There was even a disputed England try which was disallowed and stopped us progressing to the finals. The only difference was that New Zealand decided they might as well win this tournament.

This was the first time I have take a VU trip to the Dubai tournament and we will certainly be doing it again. Austin Healey, Will Greenwood, Scott and Gavin Hastings, Jason Leonard and Chris Sheasby were just some of the names out there. A few of them played in an invitational tournament which runs alongside the main event, and the former England boys won it. I must say they would not persuade me to pull the shirt on again for 7s - I think I would last about 45 seconds now.

 You know it has been a good trip when happy clients say they want to book straight away for next year. I have always loved the Hong Kong 7s and it is great to have Dubai on our calendar now as well. The great thing about Dubai is that the bars do shut at 3am, unlike Hong Kong which is 24/7. The early closing (believe me that does feel early compared to some of our trips) gives us a bit of time to prepare for the next day!

I have really been clocking up the air miles recently. You may remember that my last blog was about a few problems getting to South Africa. I had a few problems getting back too because of delays so in the end I went directly to Dubai without coming back home. Luckily I had packed a few extra pairs of pants.

I am only back in the UK for a couple of days and then it is off to Las Vegas for the Hatton fight. I can't wait to take a VU Limited party out there - I love the city and I am sure our group will be up for a party. There are 60 of us, I would hope at least one of us has a bit of luck on the tables.

Because I have been a bit out of the loop I have only just heard that Ronnie Regan had a few problems with his club Bristol over his insistence to play for the Barbarians on Saturday. I think it is great that he stuck to his guns and said he wanted to play for the Baa Baas. It is a great rugby institution and even though I was a bit busy in Dubai to watch the game I heard it was a fantastic occasion.

After the Las Vegas trip we have got a bit of a Christmas break and then it is busy preparing for the Six Nations. Interest is greater than ever thanks to England's return to form.

I will try and update you from Las Vegas, keep your fingers crossed for Hatton and for my luck on the tables!

Sorry about the wait since the last blog. After the World Cup I have been walking around like a zombie. What an amazing six weeks, but since then I don’t think I have made it past 9pm at night.

I am trying out a new font for the post-World Cup blog so I hope you like it. There will be more updates before during and after events like the Mayweather and Hatton fight in Las Vegas and the Dubai Sevens as the end of November. Then there is the RBS 6 Nations and even the Lions in South Africa in 2009 – so plenty to talk about.

For someone who was said to be like a rabbit caught in the headlights he did a good job getting a team labelled as a bunch of no-hopers within inches of winning a Rugby World Cup (maybe it was a try). I am sure there are coaches in Australia, New Zealand, Wales and Scotland who would have been prepared to be called any names if they got their team to a World Cup final. I suspect not many of them have had to put up with the sort of comments levelled at Ashton since the tournament.

Since the World Cup other than sleeping I have been doing a bit of catching up. I sorted out Ronnie and Matt Dawson to appear at a function for those nice people at Nationwide. I have also been putting the finishing touches to my new newspaper. It will be going out to my clients, but if you want a copy drop me a line with your name and address to info@vultd.co.uk