Friday 28th July we packed out the Conference room at Grange Farm, for our 10th Anniversary Bash. A glass of fizz welcomed the 50+ members and guests to an evening of games, horse quiz, AGM and awards.
Starting with the icebreaker Bingo, 2 short videos – one from 2012 and this year’s VIDEO – followed by The Quiz written by Sharon and Janice.
See the 2017 video here – WARC 2017 Video
There was a dash to the chippy by Tracey & Helen to get a car load of fish, sausages, chicken and of course chips – and I mean a car load, in the boot, back seat, foot wells and on Helen’s lap.
The AGM followed with Tracey (chairman) thanking Di Dunlop and presenting her with a bunch of flowers for her support in using Grange Farm Equestrian Centre over the years, the founders Charlotte Hollis, Julia Dungworth and Dawn Ross. The previous chairs, Charlotte, Sue Proctor and Karen Dinwoodie, followed by thanks to the rest of the current committee.
Sharon Pick – Vice-chair and Junior Representative
Karen Barker – Treasurer and Trec competitions and training
Angela Lumsdon – Training mentoring, Banker and Combined Training Team manager
Janice Price – Dressage competitions and Team Manager
Kerry Dean – Cross-County Training and Team Manager
Helen Mcintosh – Secretary and SJ Team Manager
Lynette Ippolito – Safety and Welfare Officer
Ruth Demagalski – SJ Competitions
Tania Scutt – SJ Competitions and Minutes Secretary
Debbie Littlemore – Membership Secretary
Sharon Reid and Jo Lofts – Junior Representatives
Then onto the legal bits, the Treasurer’s report, from Karen. She firstly thanked Angela who does all the collecting and banking of monies. The accounts were on display for all to see but Karen explained how our accountant has sorted out an important query regarding Corporation tax, and we don’t owe anything for the time being (yippee). The bank balance is very healthy and last year we had 128 members. Our future plans are to buy some new dressage boards and letters.
Official thanks and legal part over we went onto …
The Awards.
The mentors were asked to nominate the horse and rider who had most improved this year.
Tom Fray ‘s award went to Helen McIntosh
Cathy Lammie nominated Jo Meikle
Kate Knight – Hannah Elsey
Claire Llewelyn – Ann Hiles
Jane Ellis – Phillipa Worrall
Rachel Finch – Yvonne Ludeks
The Committee gave two special awards – firstly to some-one who embodied the club’s values – helped at events, regularly came to mentoring, rode in qualifiers, was always helpful and encouraging to other members and was a general good egg, and the 2017 winner was – Debbie Robinson
Also special mention of one of our youngest members – Louis Devonshire who was due to be with us during the evening together with his mum Jo but was in fact recovering from his transplant operation in London – a super Bravery Award for Louis – we all wish you well.
Helpers were thoroughly thanked having clocked up an amazing 900+ hours of setting up, running and clearing away at events over the past membership year. The roll of honour (excluding committee members) was
Sara & Graham Murphy
Merry Clark
Sue Gregg
Juliette Eaton
Jo Harrison
Hannah And Abi Elsey
Jools Long
Claire Mellor
Debbie Robinson
Sandi & Maddie Taylor
Andy Blair
Cherry Anderson
Sue Scarrott
All their names were put into a hat and one lucky winner drawn out of the hat – Hannah and Abi Elsey – worthy winners of a bottle of fizz (well not Hannah!!!)
And there ended a lovely night and out into the pouring rain …
How delighted are we that our dressage pair Debbie Robinson and Claire Marcus, were placed 1st in the Area 7 Dressage Qualifier competition on Sat 15th July at Earith. They are now off to the Lincoln Championships in September and flying the WARC flag.
Well done ladies and many congratulations from us all
Please see invitation to our 10th anniversary bash – open to members only
RSVP by 21st July