Sep 11 2011 - Charity Funday

Charity Day in aid of Big'C' & Air Ambulance

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THE BIGGEST AND THE BEST EVER!! OVER £8,000! THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING!!!

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Divine intervention turned what should have been a very wet and windy day into one that swathed Wymondham Rugby Club in sunshine! The crowds came thick and fast to watch some astonishingly brilliant rugby and very 'entertaining' too!

The minis gave us a wonderful display of young talent that makes this club so special - little red and black Dennis the Menaces that grow into very large and skillfull players whocome back to their club year on year to support our very unique charity event. A touch rugby match couldn't be held this year as the team had been playing in the National Tournament at

Twickenham on the Saturday. As usual the Jane Icke Memorial Match was played by the U17's and Junior Colts which was followed by a devastatingly fast Celebration of Life Match between Harris Hunks and Wrights Wildmen, many of these players returning from far flung parts of the country once again. We all agreed that the referee, Dick Shand, did a brilliant job to last the course!

The Ladies brought such colourful entertainment to the day playing in their ball gowns!!!!! Yes, you can't imagine it but we did see it and the referee, James Trounce, looked a picture in his Wonder Woman outfit! Due to a fixture on the Saturday, the 3rd team could not have the David Dring Memorial Match but we hope to make that a special occasion in the near future.

Enough of rugby and how did we make that enormous amount of money? Well, we had all the usual scrummy bacon rolls and the sizzling bbq, jumbo sausages and they were big and the beefburgers and icecream etc but in addition..........we had Bob's Bazaar with an array of cakes you just couldn't resist!!!! (Bob is our young 94 year old who has just been appointed the first patron of the Club!) There couldn't be one person who looked and did not buy a cake and then another and then a box to take home!! Bob Sutton's daughter, Jo Ford and her husband David had spent hours before the day making black and red decorations to adorn Bob's huge marquee which housed locally grown vegetables, plants, homemade jams and hand made jewellery, all donated, plus daughters Louise and Emma spent all Saturday baking hundreds of delicious cakes! Son in law Toby was not left out as everyone was running round until late Saturday to make a spectacular display for all of us to enjoy on Sunday. A massive £1,500 was raised by Bob generously topping up with over £100 to make a nice round figure!

There was a wheelbarrow of very large teddies to be won this year as well as a huge tombola table with 300 wonderful prizes all donated and the raffle had 17 prizes, many worth over £100 so everyone was very keen to 'have a go' and buy lots of tickets!

Our main revenue comes from our programme and we once again thank Brett Larke of Williams Lea for organising this to be printed free and all our advertisers and sponsors for supporting us. The Kett Chapter of BNI were our main sponsors this year and our thanks go to them for a sound start to our fundraising. Also, Bill Yeates did a magnificent job once again in pulling all the copy together to make it an eye catching publication which we hope to expand next year to include some pictures and copy of events that happen in our club during the year.

None of this happens without a dedicated band of helpers and my thanks go to all those people who gave so much time before the event but also on the day. As the event keeps growing, we are hoping to find some more, dare I say it, younger volunteers to make sure this continues into the future. Not only are we raising money for charity but we also see so many people so happy to be reunited with their friends again, enjoying what is the best game ever! The whole club comes together on this day - the minis through to the 'old men'! and the lovely ladies - the true 'spirit' of the game comes alive, camaraderie, true friendship supporting each other.

Well, we were £300 approximately short of our £8,000 target and Leathes Prior got to hear of this and, in their usual very generous way, they decided to support our club once again in our pursuit to gain more every year for our charities. With a wonderful donation of over £900 we are nearer the £8,500 mark we are able to donate this year to two wonderful local charities - thank you Leathes Prior!!

My thanks go to you all for coming and those that couldn't make it this year, I hope you will come and enjoy it with us next year. So far we have raised over £37,000 for charity so come along next year and help us in the Club's 40th Anniversary Year to get over the £40,000 mark!

Jenni Shelton,

Chair,

Wymondham Rugby 4 Charity

If you would like to help in anyway, have any fundraising ideas for 2012 or you would like to advertise in the programme or have events you would like to be included,

please contact Anita Coleman on 01953 600061 or Jenni on 07727 664133)

Air Ambulance on Facebook CLICK HERE

Air Ambulance web site CLICK HERE

Big 'C' on Facebook CLICK HERE

Big 'C' web site CLICK HERE