SACC Awards Dinner
13th November, 2015
On Friday 13th November Graham Gooch made the long journey from Essex to the Steeple Aston Village Hall to present the end of season Awards and to help raise money for the Lord’s Taverners charity. Up until the Thursday night we were nervously sat on 99 guests, the tension was rising, but then a snick through the slips brought Geoffrey and Judith Lane and a tentative prod into the covers, brought Rob Hull; 102 guests, the first century of guests in our Club’s history.
“Goochie”…
You can say many good things about Goochie – fine England captain; second highest England Test run scorer of all time, but I feel the two things that set him apart are that:
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He has selflessly coached and mentored Alistair Cook to beat his record
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He will turn up on a wet Friday to give a talk in a small Village Hall, because he loves the game and wants to give something back
Graham chatted happily with many of the team and their guests before the dinner and made a highly amusing speech with his deadpan delivery. His best joke (now my favourite) is worth repeating:
Two Yorkshiremen are leaving a Sportsman’s dinner after a night out in Leeds and one turns to the other and says, “So what did you make of the speech then?” to which his Yorkie mate replies, “Well it was fine, if you like laughing”. As a Yorkshireman myself I wept with laughter.
There was a also a special award for “Best Groundsman”, which went to Paul Longman in recognition of all the hours he has spent preparing the Barton Abbey ground. Jon Scotchbrook has also done great work, but he clearly has more friends than Paul!
Greg Renk was a unanimous choice for Clubman of the Year, as he stands down as Captain after three years of unstinting work. Greg always does everything with a smile on his face, despite having sent 2,439 emails to members of the club reminding them about fixtures; where to meet; what time; bring the kit bag; tie your shoe laces. You get the point! Thank you on behalf of the Club – Greg, Paul and Jon.
Lord’s Taverners Charity…
The dinner closed at 11.30pm and many guests helped to tidy up, testament to the spirit that exists in the Club. It was a truly great Village night and amazingly we raised almost £3,000 for the Lord’s Taverners Charity. Jock Shepherd worked tirelessly to sell 1,000 Raffle Tickets, a record perhaps not even he may ever beat. So as we head into 2016 and our match with the Taverners on Sunday 22nd May, we have already raised more than £11,000. This is well ahead of our performance last time, so we hope to reach our target of £25,000 (2010 £20,000). Look out for news of our special Taverners Dinner in the New Year.
