Beverley Town Cricket Club – Sportsman’s Dinner & Dance

Beverley Town Cricket Club held its first major dinner dance in recent years on Saturday February 9th at Lazaats, Cottingham.

There were 275 club members, families and friends in attendance for a night of guest speakers and music with MC Neil Rudd of Radio Humberside, a former Beverley Town player, expertly handling proceedings.

Following a three course meal, club chairman Alan Acklam made three presentations; to long-standing sponsor Neil McKenzie of Meza 9 Beverley; to new sponsor Mark Smedley of G Smedley Transport, Hull, and last but not least to the club’s long serving Ian Morrison.

The club has been blessed with support from its own members for many years but increased running costs and last year’s promotion to the Yorkshire League North (for the first time in the club’s history) will mean extra expense and the continued support of Neil McKenzie and others and input from new supporters like Mark Smedley is invaluable. Ian Morrison, as curator of the squares at Norwood, has brought about an enormous improvement in the several decades of his involvement and his contribution to the clubs success cannot be underestimated.

Guest speakers were former Yorkshire and England cricketer and Manchester United footballer Arnie Sidebottom and Paul Nixon, currently Head Coach at Leicestershire CCC, formerly a Leicestershire, Kent and England cricketer. Both entertained with stories about their playing careers and revealed some interesting anecdotes concerning the England and West Indies teams, Geoff Boycott, Fred Trueman, Freddie Flintoff and others.

There was a raffle and an auction both of which had excellent prizes generously donated by club members and friends. The latter, enthusiastically run by John Hawley, was followed by music from the Mike Brown Band.

The whole event was managed by a small team of club members headed by Kieran O’Brian and the club is grateful to them for their hard work and perseverance which led to a really enjoyable and financially rewarding event.