Ploughmans CC Presentation Dinner, Season 2002

The Bull Hotel Fairford, Saturday 2^nd November

The 2002 presentation dinner marked the end of a momentous season for the Club. Our first season playing league cricket, our first "silverware" as a Club, one Captain standing down and a new Captain elected.

Whilst fifteen of us had been lucky enough to get tickets for the League Awards dinner and celebrate there (in the finest traditions of the Club), everyone who could not attend that event had some serious celebrating to catch up on.

This dinner also brought the curtain down on the most successful five years in the history of the Club; Dyll Davies handing over the reins to Tom Lonnen. Unbeknown to the departing skipper a plan had been hatched during the Tour; as Dyll always attends Club functions wearing a kilt- Alan Tolhurst suggested that we all wear kilts to the dinner.

The plan came to fruition- thanks in no small part to Jackie Berry, Tracey Cox and Heather Wilkinson who rummaged through countless charity shops to find the tartan material necessary to meet our demands. Tracy took things one stage further by making "sporrans" for everyone too!

As the weekend drew closer there were furtive E-mails and phone calls and at the AGM the subject of kilts was openly discussed as the skipper was absent. The conspiracy even included Dyll's wife Cathy and their children- Morag and Harry who apparently found the whole thing dreadfully exciting.

As the actual evening unfolded at the Bull, Cathy detained Dyll in his room whilst Jackie rang nearly every other room in the hotel to get everyone else to the bar in a carefully choreographed pincer movement. Cathy then "released" Dyll to come downstairs, his face (below) as he entered the bar and saw one kilt, then another, and another, then several… was an absolute picture. The man is very seldom speechless but this was one of those occasions!

As you can see from some of the other faces, nearly everyone else found the experience quite breathtaking too. As you are about to find out in the "gallery" that follows, dressing us lot in kilts might have seemed like a good idea at the time- some of the sights that followed were, quite frankly, enough to put anyone off their dinner! In a nutshell (slightly unfortunate choice of phrase) it became a question of what some people wear under a kilt!

First Simon Wilkinson shared his fabulous pants with everyone - to the amusement of Adam Willden, to the surprise of Alan Tolhurst and to the obvious pride of his wife Heather in the background. Please bear in mind that most of these first pictures were taken at the BEGINNING of the evening, before the real drinking started!

Not to be outdone in these sorts of situations; Club Treasurer Robert Cox exposed his party accessories but everyone else seems to have run away! The next picture illustrates perfectly some of the horrors on show. A group photo-call outside the front of the hotel, took place; sadly but probably rather mercifully- the light was too poor for any resulting pictures to be used. However, Simon Wilkinson (by now obviously in full flow) thought he would treat the children to another exotic display. Is that a look of horror, amusement or bewilderment on Morag's face? Even the Club Fixture Secretary; Mr Gary Buckner whilst clearly exposing himself, looks rather shocked at this flagrant exhibitionism.

As to the rest the pictures, as they say, are worth a thousand words!

The staff of the Hotel surprised everyone by also entering into the spirit of the occasion; Chrissie (left) here showing her commitment to the cause.

The Chef was called into the dinner to show that he too was involved.

Last and by no means least, the bar staff had clearly fully embraced the spirit of the evening and the ethos of the Club!

There was a separate table for the children "diners", though one or two of them may need long term counselling for the trauma they had endured/witnessed. Hands up everyone who wants a social worker!

One of only a few properly (authentically) dressed for occasion- Dyll cuts a fine figure in a kilt. The idea behind our poor imitations was a visible representation of the respect and affection in which he is held by everyone at the Club- he had every right to look pleased.

Of those improperly dressed, Coxy once again felt obliged to air his accessories during dinner- you will note the resigned indifference of his fellow diners.

Later on and probably of rather more concern to everyone might have been …….. if that is Coxy's accessory cover in his hand, what is he currently wearing under there?

Don't even go near there!

Onto the awards; the main event of the evening. We started with one outstanding matter from the Tour, the presentation of the player of the tour award; Matt Ridgway receives the Mick Keay Trophy for his efforts in July (those on the pitch anyway) The first of several trophies that night for Ridgway Senior.

In the absence of both our bowler of the year; Jason Withers and batsman of the year Greg Smith, the next presentation went to Matty again; The match ball from our game with Abdul Aziz where Matt returned match figures of 10 for 19 was mounted and presented to him in recognition of those extraordinary bowling figures.

The most improved player was shared this year, Dyll unable to separate Shady Ramzan and Ed Bird. Sadly Ed was in Scandinavia on business but Shady was able to collect his award.

The award to the Fielder of the Year was the first of the evening where the winner was decided by the votes of his peers. In a year where we saw some quite brilliant catching and fielding from half a dozen or more players, the votes for two players set them apart from the others. It was a very close contest with the winner Steve Houchin (left) just pipping wicket keeper Chris Feeney to the honours.

The next award was for Clubman of the year, again voted for by his peers but this was no close contest. The clear winner was our new Club Captain; Tom Lonnen. Recognition of his commitment on the pitch and his efforts off it, especially getting sides out on a Sunday; the award was well deserved.

The Players' Player award went to Matt Ridgway- again a clear winner with his fellow players and in recognition of his contribution with bat and ball throughout the season.

There was some light relief in the form of Club President Mick Keay saying a few words in his inimitable style. Managing to congratulate us and gently take the mickey at the same time- Alan Tolhurst managed to provide Mick with an easy target (easier than usual) with his comedy wig.

The evening also saw a moment of high emotion. Following a unanimous vote at the Club AGM; Con Pilavachi was awarded Honorary Life Membership. It was very appropriate that his old friend Dyll should say a few words in recognition of Con's efforts over the years. The award came as a complete surprise to the man we honoured and as you can see from his reaction, he was rather overcome- well if the truth be told- we all were!

Difficult to follow that but Tom Lonnen had to, he chose some excellent words to praise (and take the rise out of) his predecessor and to thank him for his tireless work for the Club, especially over the last five years as Captain.

Dyll was presented with a tankard expressing the gratitude of everyone at the Club, I can assure everyone that he drank out of it all night (and morning).

The formalities over, it was time to relax and boy do we know how to "relax"! The excellent DJ Andy had returned to look after us, possibly hoping for another flash of exposed female breasts but I think that this year he will have been quite happy that nothing was flashed at him at all!

Con managed to compose himself sufficiently to pose with the trophies won by his Club. He was resplendent in his Caledonian attire but the telltale desert boots gave away his Zimbabwean roots! Nice legs though…

It wasn't long before the dance floor became awash with twirling kilts and some really quite bizarre movements. Breaths of fresh air became necessary at various points- Shady and Rich share one here with the "Tour Virgin" Christine.

Staff were not exempt from the festivities; Chrissie here with Mrs Berry showing us how they do it in Gloucestershire.

Rich Buckley here treats us to one of several "solo" performances on the night- magnificent effort sir.

Whilst most people sported a longer kilt (skirt) Chris Feeney decided to show off his legs and, it must be said, to great effect - not since Mary Quant have we seen such a short mini-skirt.

Gary Buckner was clearly still upset about being outdone by Simon's exposure earlier, doesn't he look happy - a thorn between two roses? Jackie Berry and Clare Rudden give support to the "grumpy old man".

Harry and Sandra also take a break from the dancing, though Harry's knee prevented him from really throwing himself around on the dance floor. Manfully and in the absence of Paul Peters, Harry maintained his post close to the bar for most of the night.

Some of these photos really need no words…….

Some of the "dances" were certainly unusual, none more so than Steve Houchin's quite spellbinding effort. Try as we did to follow in his footsteps, nobody quite managed to surpass the "master".

The dancing was not without its casualties; many had to stop for refuelling and running repairs. Many took the opportunity to sit around and have a chat though, given the volume of the disco, this normally involved shouting into each other's ears with great gusto. Here we see the "brains trust" obviously planning tactics for next season;

The next group "smokers corner" also seem fairly relaxed

and are probably just getting their breath back before the next foray onto the dance floor.

Quite what conversation was going on here, if any, might be best-left under wraps…..probably just some simple brotherly advice.

The festivities were briefly halted to allow Dyll just enough time to present Mark Dudley with our Championship Trophy. Thankfully, Mark was sober enough to explain that the shield would remain on display at our spiritual home; The Bull Hotel….our very own "virtual clubhouse".

There were several renditions of the Queen hit; "We are the Champions" during the evening/morning. This one appears to have been led by Linda Teague, though it is difficult to tell from the scrum taking place! The League Championship shield seems to be in good hands.

The disco continued until about 3am, (our gratitude again to Andy the DJ) but the tiredness was becoming more and more apparent amongst the partygoers. It seemed that Cally was struggling at one point but a reviving pep-talk from Captain Tom Lonnen soon got her back on her feet.

For some though, any sort of pep talk would have come too late. This was especially so in the case of Huw Williams who had retired to the bar area. The photographer could perhaps have chosen a more flattering camera angle but the picture does tell a story……..

For those who were there, we know that this was not the end of the night for one or two of our number. You would have thought that having drawn attention to yourself in a bus stop in July - one might have foreseen the potential problems involved in getting locked in the toilets. (sorry no photo)

All in all, this was another great night for the Club. Those of us who feared that we would not be able to top the previous year's festivities need not have worried! Marvellous effort that…

What will 2003 at the Bull hold for us? can we follow this? Well, I think we ought to give it a damn good try!

IB