Since our very successful dinner in January with Scott Quinnell as the guest speaker, we have been very occupied in the region with many different activities.

Regional Golf Day

As seems to be now accepted normality, we led the way with the first of the Regional Golf days on 29th March held as usual at the Royal Automobile Club at Woodcote Park, Epsom. A record entry of 20 teams had an enjoyable day’s golf on a superb course followed by an evening meal and entertainment provided by the comedian Adger Brown. The winners this year were the Kingsmill 1 team, captained by our Honorary Treasurer Paul Taylor, who will go forward to the Finals at Chepstow on 29th September – we wish them the best of luck! We held a silent auction for the first time, and it was a great success raising in excess of £3,000 to add to our funds and making this golf day the most successful we have ever held financially. Our thanks to all who attended and supported the Spoon cause so magnificently.

Dorking RFC Mini Rugby Festival

After a breather over Easter, our next event was to support the huge mini rugby festival (well over 2,000 boys and girls were playing on the day) at Dorking on 22nd April. With our thanks to RAM Rugby, we organised our usual successful assault / obstacle course to occupy those who were not playing at the time, and awarded prizes to the winners of each age group. Our main function was to increase awareness of Spoon amongst the rugby playing (and supporting) community and we were helped in this by three charming young ladies who toured the grounds carrying collection buckets and membership application forms. The collections were boosted by selling wrist bands to many of the youngsters.

Rugby Clubs Golf Championship

On the following day, our Chairman and Brian Hodges were at Betchworth Park Golf Club for the Surrey Region’s first round of this competition. It was good to see 17 teams tee off on a windy day, and the top 6 teams made it through to the next round. Well done to them! Thanks to a well supported raffle and an overall contribution on the day, our funds were boosted by just under £2,000.

Harry Watts Cha1lenge Festival at Cranleigh

The following weekend we were back at another rugby club, this time at Cranleigh, to support the Harry Watts Challenge Appeal. In May 2006, a very popular 16 year old member of Cranleigh RFC named Harry Watts was tragically killed in a road traffic accident. His parents decided that they would like to form a fund in his memory and initiated "The Harry Watts Cha11enge". The number 11 within this title reminds everyone of the number on Harry's rugby shirt and the original hope was to raise £11,000. This target has already been doubled and they are now hoping to make the magnificent sum of £30,000! We are working closely with Anthony and Marianne Watts and much of the donations are coming through Spoon. We are currently sourcing a local project worthy of this super effort on which to spend the funds as a permanent memorial to Harry and a reminder of what Spoon can do.
 
The day was a huge success, based around a Tag (Mixed) Rugby Under 16/17 competition between teams from 10 local schools and colleges. There were many attractions present to afford fun for those who came to watch and support including a Wooden Spoon balloon race, and we arranged to have our RAM obstacle course there again to keep the minis busy. With good draught beer in the clubhouse and lamb roasts in the grounds, everyone enjoyed the day. The tag tournament was great fun to watch and provided a great opportunity for open play, passing and imaginative running. Each participating team were presented by  Danny Cipriani, the rising Wasps star fly-half, with a certificate and a match ball signed by Rob Andrew.

Tandridge Borough Council

The Chairman of Tandridge Borough Council, Barry Compton, is a very keen supporter of Spoon and nominated us as the Charity for his Year (which is just about to end). They held a golf day on May 8th and a Charity Ball on the following Saturday at Park Wood Golf Club in Tatsfield. We are very grateful to Barry and his team for their support during his year and David Jackson, the Surrey Chairman, had a most enjoyable evening at the ball which raised further funds for Spoon.