Presentation Night

Presentation Night Friday 19^th June 2015

In a break from what has become “tradition” we had a proper presentation night this year.

Simon Edwards had organised a buffet style meal at the Plas Hafod. Over 40 members, friends and family attended for an absolutely excellent evening. As always the club members acquitted themselves well, demonstrating their amazing ability to eat, drink and enjoy themselves to an exceptionally high standard. And to talk about ……. running. It was an opportunity to pat ourselves on the back and tell each other how wonderfully we have done throughout the year. But it has been a very good year so there was plenty to talk about.

After an excellent buffet it was presentation time. The chairman had prepared a twenty page speech, but added an extra page during the meal because it was clearly too short and further information was received on Facebook during the meal. He spoke of the range of outstanding performances and occurrences during the year. Most importantly identified that the reason the club regularly punches above its weight is the enthusiasm and determination of the members. It is partly about individual performances but it is team work that makes Buckley a successful club.

Once again the trophies had been supplied to us by Dragon Trophies. Peter is always very helpful and offers us a discount too. A full list of the wards is below. It was delightful to see some new faces in the awards section as well as some returning after some years of absence.

Mike Austin (last year’s winner) took over to present the Members Award to Gareth Houghton. There had been a wide range of nominees and Mike went through the reasons. It had been a very difficult decision. The list of nominees was long, and the reasons varied showing how many pople contribute to the club is many different ways. We were able to identify three members who had each received a significant numbers of nominations for the outstanding way they had contributed to the club.

Jason Dwan for the support for so many other runners especially the newer members, and for the marathons he has run for charity and being a nice guy. “For all the time he takes to look after all the new runners and anyone struggling and encouraging them”

Simon Edwards for the excellent running especially in the hills, taking on extra responsibilities (including organising the presentation evening) “Supported all club events this year. Always organises and includes everyone. Fantastic attitude to running and the club. Great runner. Good taste in music.”

The winner was Gareth Houghton having been nominated for the way he has trained and raced this year, always being cheerful, but mainly for the massive contribution he has made to the club by developing the new website. It was Gareth who suggested it in the first place and along with Simon Edwards set it up and now contributes to it keeping it up-to-date. It is colourful, interesting and easy to navigate. People outside the club have noted how good it is. “Really friendly, welcomed me to the club, supports lots of events, works tirelessly on the impressive website, totally dedicated to the club!” and for “…bringing Buckley Runners into the 21st century, attracting many new members, and sharing news on events and race reports”.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to put names forward. It really shows how many people contribute so much to the club and it is good to know that it is appreciated. Congratulations to everyone who was nominated and thank you.

It was an excellent evening. We have many new members and I expect to see them in the awards next year. I am glad we brought the presentation night back to be a proper event. I am sure that after the success of this event we be doing it again next year.

Traws Gwlad

Winner Male – Eric Campbell

2^nd Male Mike Austin

3^rd Male Ian Bayliss

4^th Male Mike Jones

5^th Male Alan Smith

6^th Male Eddie Davies

Border League

Winner Female Hayley Evans

2^nd Female Jane Lindley

3^rd Female Sue Ridings

4^th Female Dawn Urquhart

Border League

Winner Male Jez Brown

2^nd Male Eddie Davies

3^rd Male Paul Stinton

4^th Male Mike Jones

5^th Male Simon Roberts

6^th Male Mike Austin

7^th Male Marcus Reid

8^th Male Eric Campbell

9^th Male Allen Smith

10^th Male Rob Mackey

Border League

Winner Female Hayley Evans

2^nd Female Margaret Ludden

3^rd Female Sue Ridings

4^th Female Hazel Berrett

Pencampwriaeth y Clwb

Winner Hazel Berrett

Second Jez Brown

Third Hayley Evans

Fourth Steve Toogood