2009 Wrotham CC End of Season Do

The 2009 Wrotham CC End of Season Do will take place on Saturday 17 October at the Hilltop Hotel.  Tickets will be available throughout the cricket season – details to follow! 

Please Save the Date now and join the party in October.

!! END OF SEASON DO !!

Saturday 27th October, St George’s Hall, Wrotham. 

Our annual end of season do is approaching us quite quickly and we only have a fortnight left to call upon all cricketers / friends to book your tickets …

 The evening will start around 7.30pm with the presentations and speeches and following on from that will be the disco until around 12 ish, we will be stopping at some point throughout the night to hold the raffle which we will be selling tickets on the night for ….. top prize so far is a portable DVD player …. please feel free to bring a prize along !!

We will be having a curry / chilli with rice and french bread, some cheese and biscuits and a few desserts for all those with a sweet tooth … that’s me taken care of!!

Tickets are a mere £10 per person, any profit will go towards the cricket club and as we haven’t had much fund raising this year (Rick’s leg waxing is the only 1 that springs to mind) its also a good time to show our support to keep the cricket club up and running!!

Please feel free to bring along friends / family, the more the merrier!! We do have a licensed bar for the night and will be selling wine / beer / soft drinks / some basic spirits at very reasonable prices !!

Could all players please contact me if you are happy to donate a small prize for the raffle, wine etc normally goes down quite well too, you can even donate last years unwanted Christmas gifts, I have already so anyone winning the hands free kit can they thank Stace as he bought that for me last year ……

Seriously though, we do not seem to get enough support from the players at this evening and it really would be good if we could have everyone making a show even if it is only for an hour or so, alot of hard work goes into running the club and i think it only fair that the players show a bit more support on the night … take that as a telling off if you feel that way or merely as a request for you to show some support!!

Tickets can be requested via email, racheldavies30@btinternet.com or by phone 07815 067051 …

Look forward to seeing you all there ..

Rachel

The Waxing

Sorry it’s a bit later than expected but here it is, a video of Rick’s extraordinary bravery/stupidity.

Buffet and Boogie September 2006

This years annual dinner and dance theme has changed (as you may have guessed by the name), gone is the coach, gone is the hotel, gone is the formal dinner …… this year we will be hosting the ever successful event at St Georges Hall, Wrotham with a very informal buffet and disco, unfortunately we will all have to suffer the speeches but I am sure if it gets too much we can switch the mic off, they’ll never notice!!

Tickets for this unmissable event will be on sale through the cricket club itself or from the George and Dragon pub from the beginning of June for an astonishing £15 each, this includes your entry, your buffet, disco and raffle entry and the chance to see Geoff strutting his stuff on the dance floor . . . . what more could you want!

We’ll also have a bar with beer, wine and soft drinks however you are more than welcome to bring your own drink …….

We are asking all playing members to donate a prize for the raffle, you never know you might even be lucky enough to win it back, you may even win the main prize which is ??????? You’ll have to be there to find out …..

In all seriousness this night is for all cricketers and their friends to get together, share their statistics from the year, drink lots and have a really good night and it would be really good to see everyone there …

KRCL Pre-season Meeting

The pre-season meeting will be held on Wednesday 19th April at Old Eltamians Granby. It starts at 7:30pm.

The Dinner & Dance – A descent into madness

I wake to find my beloved Dani sitting bolt upright staring into space. Oh my God, have we been careless once again!! Nope, the reason for this panic stricken pose is that she has just realised that we don’t have a coach for the annual dinner & dance on Saturday.

So, having dodged one bullet, yours truly sets about popping his head above the parapet and volunteers to try to find local coach companies with an available bus. A couple of hours later and with much telephoning and very little work done, my boss may be unhappy but I have spoken to Shirley who is able to provide the necessary transport. One more task off my list. Tick, done.

I arrive home, looking forward to the hero’s welcome, richly deserved, due to my slick work with Shirley. Dooh, she’s now stressing over the trophies – have they been polished? do we even know where they all are? have we ordered the smaller ones that the players take home? OK, a few phone calls later and things are back under control again – Lynne (bless her) has ordered and picked up the players’ take-homes. We can grab the silverware from The Clubhouse on Saturday morning and give them a quick polish.

Ahhh, peace reigns …. for about three minutes. I have to drag my weary carcass to the PC and start to put the table booklets together. These were a bit of a success last year and act as an ice-breaker and get people talking. I’d decided to run a “who’s that baby” competition but the trouble with that is that these pictures are hard to come by, so it’s back to the phone. Curiously, people are very eager to cough up embarrassing (and, in Rich’s case, very embarrassing) pictures of themselves as toddlers. Good news then. All I have to do is wander around and collect them. Easily done. I also need to find something to fill in the memories section. We had pictures last year but this time I’ve not been so snap happy and don’t have much material. Luckily, young Harvey has been a bit of a godsend and has given me loads of match reports containing eloquent prose describing all manner of events and moments. What a star. The booklet is born.

Another day, another minor catastrophe to be faced. This one is a biggy – we need to provide final numbers to Donnington, which is a problem. Dani has a list of those people kind enough to reply to the various texts, phone calls, emails and smoke signals that we have been sending out over the last month or two. What we don’t have is a list of all the people who haven’t replied but “expressed an interest” earlier on in the season. What exactly is “an interest” and can it be counted in the numbers? More importantly, we certainly don’t have their menu choices, which is kindacrucial. It really amazes me how many people like to keep their options open and refuse to commit.

Shame, really, as it means I get to make their choices for them – they’ll have the gruel followed by the gruel with some gruel for afters. Nope, can’t do that. Back to the phones then. After much badgering, cajoling, pleading and threatening, we begin to get a picture of who is/isn’t going to be there. Time now for Dani to don her snake-oil salesman guise (you know how these Mediterranean types are) and call the nice folks at Donnington and explain why we’ve been avoiding them for the last couple weeks. As it goes, she could sell snow to the Eskimos so catering managers in Kent are no problem.

Now that we have some sort of grip on the numbers, it is time to begin the tricky (nah, let’s call it what it is – impossible) task of
sorting out the table plan. My argument is that I’m a) a bloke, b) a foreigner and c) a blow-in to the village so I don’t have to worry about who does and doesn’t get on with whom and all that rubbish. People can sit where they are put and like it. If it all devolves into carnage, then Darwin kicks in and the stronger survive for next year. Easy.

Dani is a) a woman …… and as such doesn’t see it like that. Apparently, you must take into account all of the little variables, themes and sub-plots. Hmmm. Time to call in Wrotham’s all-knowing, all-seeing, gossip diva – Miss Davies. If there’s one person who will know who is likely to end up battering someone else with a Yorkshire Pudding then it is she. Thus we arrive at Larkfieldclutching a bottle of wine. The vinoserves two purposes – it is a peace offering and it numbs the pain of having to listen to all the latest trials and tribulations of the local denizens. I’m a bloke – I don’t care. Still, give them their due, after three hours of “well, I never”‘ and “oh, she didn’t” and “that’s just wrong” the Dynamic
Duo emerged with The Plan. It was a good plan, it minimised casualties. Stacy and I watched some telly.

Over the next few days, we lurched from mini-crisis to mini-crisis, slowly but surely getting things in order and it was beginning to look like we may make everything come together in time. Stress levels were still pretty high but the possibility of an instant and painful death due to a badly chosen word diminished. Phew.

Saturday, the big day and time for a spot of racing around the countryside picking up the last remaining little things: confirm that Shirley has remembered to dispatch the coach, find the trophies, polish them, round up the raffle prizes (damn, we need to get raffle tickets), visit Donningtonto set up…… double damn, we have forgotten the biggest problem of them all… What to wear!!

Now, as a bloke, I have the luxury of wearing a suit. The unfortunate thing is that my work, in an effort to “promote a calming and happy environment”, have long since decided that we should wear casually smart clothing to the office. As a result of this stupid American yuppie crap, the suit now only gets an airing at weddings, funerals and the dinner & dance. Unbelievably, it seems to be made of a special material that shrinks annually but, after much sucking in of gut and sheer willpower, I was stood in front of the mirror admiring the sleek lines and Bond’ishlook achieved. Oh no, my shoes have laces and bending down is not an option. Dani ……

Speaking of herself, best not to dwell but let’s just say that as I was heading out of the door I heard every man’s nightmare – “I’m not happy with this dress … “.

So there we were, all dressed up and somewhere to go. The coach was blocking the High Street at the allotted time. Excellent. Hang on, there were only three people waiting. Where is everyone? Obviously we were not the only stressed bunnies that night as everyone was imbibing some Dutch
courage. The now immaculately dressed Dani went to chivvy them along – scary, believe me. Turns out that we have some elusive types in Wrotham but they were eventually tracked down in an alternative watering hole, The Rose -there is no escape. With all our strays rounded up, we boarded
the bus and set off.

First stop, Borough Green, where we were to pick up Darren and his party. True to their word, they were waiting for us and we had seven more revellers. Seven? Seven!! I’m sure that there were originally only five. Certainly we had only ever counted five. Oh my Lord, we have two extra people and no spaces on the table plan or even meals or them. Imagine those cartoons where the mercury rises up the barometer and steam comes out the victim’s ears. Then look across the aisle at Dani. Time to feign an illness (bird flu perhaps) and get off the bus. It is a testament to her character that she took it all in her stride and collected their menu choices. She was still in control.

Second stop, The Yeoman in Seal and the Evan/Bailey group. This was always going to be a potentially difficult one. Gary has never been known to rush and especially not if it involved leaving a beer behind. Callum, I think, is from a similar mould. But I did them an injustice as they, too, were waiting, beautifully coiffed and suitably attired. The perfect guests.

Third stop, DunstonGreen to pick up Basher …. and partner. Another previously unexpected guest currently without a seat or meal. The cartoon drifts on to scenes of A-bombs going off and planets vaporising. Poor Dani. Her outward calm is beginning to slip andshe is adopting the “why did I volunteer for this” look. However, she quickly added one more to the list, took the menu choices with a smile and on we went.

That’s the end of the pickups and we arrive at Donnington itself. Everyone piles off the bus and into the bar (this is Wrotham CC after all). The chat is flowing, the noise levels increase and people are relaxing into an enjoyable evening. Just time to check that all the trophies are present, the raffle prizes are set out, the DJ has been given the play list, the booklets have been placed on the tables… the tables …. oh yes, we need to inform the catering team that there are extra people and the seating plans have been changed. I was impressed, despite their muttering and hand waving, Dani continued smiling at them, soothing the feathers and achieved exactly what she wanted in terms of places and menus…and all that with no deaths. It was just sorted. Blimey.

At that point, the evening had begun and there was nothing more to do but have a very stiff drink and sit down. This was easy to achieve. The food arrived and was hot and tasty (not always guaranteed at these events). The conversations were rich and varied. Everyone seemedto be smiling and laughing. Could it be that we had once again pulled off the impossible?

Yes!

Wonders will never cease but the Dinner & Dance was, once again, a great success.