Once the golf was completed all the teams were entertained by the great Spooner supporter, Jeremy Dale, who mesmerised his audience with a fantastic display of trick shot golf. The on course entertainment was followed by a quick “sharpener” in the bar and the prize giving. The presentation party summed up what Spoon is all about. Our roots in rugby were represented by the current President of the RFU, Bob Rogers, who lives in Worthing and has provided help and support to the Sussex Committee. Bob was joined on stage by Sallyanne Murray the Fundraising Director of Chailey Heritage School in Mid Sussex that helps severely physically handicapped children. Wooden Spoon has pledged to raise £20,000 to fund a “Living Skills Area” in the school to help the older pupils gain a degree of independence.

After the prize giving was out of the way the party moved into the Ballroom in the Hotel at East Sussex National. Unbeknown to the audience they had all moved now under the management of Ann Holt and Jacqui Stewart who had taken responsibility to organise all the aspects of the dinner from the table decorations through to the auction and raffle prizes. The ladies did a fantastic job and ensured that all our guests had a fabulous evening. We were very grateful to Surrey and London Regions for the loan of their Presidents for the evening. The Sussex President was unavoidably detained as he was working nights – kicking London Irish into submission in the game against London Wasps!!

“Invers” was the consummate professional, indeed THE Master of Ceremonies. Kryan Bracken appeared with Invers throughout the evening and delighted the audience by delivering a rugby ball won in the raffle to the winner by passing it across the length of the ballroom! The Sussex region knew the event was successful with comments from Richard Thomas the Captain of Red Arc Assured  “All my team had a great day. If this is going to be an annual event we’ll be back next year for sure”. Additionally, 32 new members joined Spoon on the day and the overall profit was £14,000 which with Frimley’s matching will give the Sussex £28,000. The event was clearly a great success. As Bob Rogers said “It wasn’t well done……. It was brilliant!”

Mike Francis of Stradbrooke Marketing “kindly” observed that the performance of the Sussex Region “Wasn’t bad for a fledgling Committee” The man has a cheek, we are nearly one! The rewards on the day were the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of people, the generosity of the sponsors and the donors of raffle and auction prizes. This adds up to a large number of people, too many to mention (but you know who you are). To all who participated a massive “thank you”.

Finally the region's focus turns to December 9th, when the world famous Treorchy Male Voice Choir plays Lancing College for our second event. Bring it on!