On arrival guests were greeted by a cocktail reception, fantastically shaken and stirred by Gloucester's Tom Voyce and Ollie Phillips, followed by a welcome speech from Wooden Spoon CEO, Bill Hill, and Suzie Haworth, Senior Corporate Development Director, Wooden Spoon.

Once the food critics for the evening, including the fabulous Gregg Wallace from Master Chef, and guests were shown to their tables the first course was served together with wines generously supplied by Barefoot Wine. An appetiser of 'Pork Puffs' was delicately presented to the judges by former Scottish rugby union player Craig Chalmers who commented 'Before I came this evening I was extremely nervous as I am not the best in the kitchen but I have really enjoyed tonight and have learnt a lot from this experience. I won't be giving away any of my cooking secrets but these are absolutely delicious'.

Next it was Serge Betsen's turn to present his culinary delights to the judges, his dish consisted of a Vegetable and Tofu Spring Roll, Crispy Prawn Balls and Prawn Toast. Following Serge was the Raging Bull himself, and Master Chef winner 2011, Phil Vickery MBE, he presented the judges with a selection of delicately prepared Dim Sum Dumplings. Gloucester back-rower Luke Narraway prepared a delicious dessert of Banana Spring Roll and Valrona Chocolate Bun, which went down very well with the chocolate lovers!


Even Serge can't keep his eyes off the Master Chef in action!

Once the four chefs had completed their culinary duties a hilarious Q&A session took place with all four of the Rugby Chefs and our fabulous cocktail shakers, reminiscing of days gone by and to come, as well as the fun they have playing the game.

With the evening coming to an end it was time for the part we had all been waiting for, who was going to be crowned the winner of Scrum Dine with Me 2012. With 389 points the winner was Phil Vickery MBE, followed closely by Serge Betsen who scored 381, Craig Chalmers with 355 and Luke Narraway with 317.5. The scores were very close, which reflected just how hard it was to judge as each of the players did a fantastic job.


Our Scrum Dine 2012 champion, Phil Vickery MBE

Luke Narraway tweeted 'Great night at @pingpongdimsum with scrum dine with me courtesy of @charityspoon Vicks just had too much brand to compete with!'
Tom Voyce followed suit tweeting 'Fantastic night with @charityspoon. @pingpongdimsum where brilliant although @lukenarraway should have won!'

The fundraising activities such as a raffle, live auction with the great Ian Robertson on hand to get guests digging deep and the silent auction running through the evening resulted in a great evening for the Charity raising in excess of £30,000 for Spoon, all of which will go towards the hard work we do in helping to change the lives and prospects of disadvantaged children throughout the British Isles.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all our supporters that were able to attended, a very special thank you to Aon Benfield for sponsoring the evening, Nigel Barden our wonderful MC, Ping Pong and to our fantastic players for their sterling culinary and cocktail shaking efforts.

Stay tuned for next year's Scrum Dine with Me, an evening you will not want to miss.

* This event was delivered by Wooden Spoon in partnership with Ambassador Helen Wakeman-Jones Management and Design (www.wkdproductions.co.uk)
* This event was covered by Sky Sports and was shown on The Rugby Club on Thursday 10^th May at 6.30pm