Awards Night
IT wasn't quite the Oscars, but the red carpet was laid out and the glad rags were thrown on for the Stubbington Green Runners' awards evening at the Holiday Inn in Titchfield.
Highlight of the evening was the lifetime achievement award which was made by Stubbington stalwart, John Vose. Johnny-boy has been looking after wife Joan recently, who has just come out of hospital after suffering a stroke. But he turned up to the start of the awards ceremony to receive both his award and a standing ovation from club members.
The Ant and Dec of SGR, Gary Littlecott and Dave King, hosted the evening which included a three-course meal and disco. After dinner, they persuaded Chris and Wendy Hall to test out how much they knew about each other with an impromptu game of TV's "Mr & Mrs".
Thanks to the photographic skills of the Silver Fox, Mike Bell, guests were treated to a humorous photographic slide show feature Stubbington runners are their funniest.
For the awards, Mark Le Gassick was named as senior male athlete of the year, and Lucy Simmons won the female award. Nick Kimber and Suzy MacGregor won the veterans' awards, while Dave Marrott was named track and field athlete of the year, and Marcus Lee the most improved runner. Julie Simms, the wife of Richard Simms, won the supporter of the year award, while the outstanding performance honours when to Richard Thomas for his amazing marathon run in the Ironman Triathlon.
Some £347 was raised from the proceeds of the raffle and a game of "heads and tails" for the Hampshire Autistic Society, for whom Sally Hillyear and Gemma Harvey from the society received a cheque for £1,000 from Gary in his role as race director of the Stubbington 10km with some of the proceeds of that race. A similar cheque for £1,000 has been presented to Macmillan Cancer Care.
It was another fantastic evening - roll on next year!
Click here for photos.