Dinner Dance 2023
It's back once more to the Fox and Hounds. We are slighlty down on numbers with Other Mike unavailable but still total sixteen. After catching up we take the short and rather chilly walk to Will's. On arrival Will talks us through the dishes he has spend most of the preceding week preparing. There is a lot. There are Indian restaurants with fewer choices of curry. We all tuck in. Mr Moulin again proves his worth to the team with a selection of fine wines.
Having made a decent dent into the main courses we settle down to hear Pete's review of the season. It's been a good one for the team and a great one for several players (more on that later). There has also been some sad news this year with the passing of one of our original players, the much loved John Thompson. John was a slow bowler who could bat a bit, but in truth he was so much more than that. Constantly supportive of his team mates and positive in outlook he also knew more about cricket than most of us put together. After hanging up his cricket boots John became pretty much our full time umpire. He was scrupulously fair in his decion making even when his sons Peter and David were playing. He was a great man and will be missed.
Deserts were then served by Will. As always it was tough to decide whether to go for the crumble or attack the cheese board. Drivers were advised to steer clear of the pudding that was literally on fire, due to its alcohol content. Votes were cast for the annual awards with voters being able to reference the excellent stats booklet put together by Howard and Neil. Honestly, it had tables, pie charts and everything.
Batsman of the Year - Rob T (that's what happens when you score over 300 runs in the season)
Bowler of the Year - Will
Fielder of the Year - Howard
Players Player of the Year - Rob T
Champagne moment - Awarded to Will and Jon for organsising the Jilly Whale memorial charity match at Cheriton.
The Arrow 'game changer' award (new award that Jon purchased / found in a skip) - Phil Moulin for his magic four wicket bowling spell.
Another great evening came to an end with handshakes and taxis. Already looking forward to next year (Ed: the Dinner Dance that is, not the cricket).
Dinner Dance 2022
Our 2022 event started as normal with drinks in the Fox and Hounds. The group then retired to Wills. Mr Moulin then arrived with some rather lovely wine. At this point things started to become hazy for many of the attnedees. We are pretty sure there was loads of food and quite a few speeches. We must have voted for awards as these were handed out, but no-one can recall who won what or why.
The location of Napoleon indicates that Gav was the recipient of player of the year. Evidently his wife was particulalry pleased with the award. As for the names of the other awardees, they are lost in time. We probably could try and work out based upon stats and the memories of those who did not partake in extensive wine tasting, but as your editor was most unlikely to be on the list we will just quietly move on. .
Dinner Dance 2021
Our annual dinner dance returned with a record attandance of 20. Will again offered to host. After pre-meal drinks at the Fox and Hounds we headed to Will's and immediately tucked into the vast array of main course dishes Rach and Will had prepared.
It was lovely to see Ed make an appearance, having travelled up from darkest Devon just for the occasion. We were even more pleased to see Mr Moulin and his selection of 'ordinary' wines. There were also a number of first timers this year, with Gavin, Neil and Arvind all attending their first dinner dance.
The awards ceremony began with Pete H giving an overview of the season, before announcing James V as the recipient of the 'champagne moment' award for his reaction catch at the final match of the season. A worthy winner. Voting then took place for our traditional team awards. Some time was lost trying to locate the awards themselves. Luckily most were at Wills having been won by various members of the family two years ago. Unluckily one of the awards had been eaten by one of Wills dogs. A new bowler hat was produced as if by magic.
As ever counting of the votes was overseen by Mole, Will and Jon. Winners were;
Bowler of the Year - Matt S
Batsman of the Year - Neil
Fielder of the Year - Robin (this was almost unanimous)
Players Player of the Year - Howard
It was then time to say goodbye to Simon. Will gave a lovely and heartfelt speech thanking Simon for all he has given the club over the years. There have been wickets, catches and many, many runs. He has also supplied two excellent players over the years, having introduced his sons AJ and Will to the joys of cricket as soon as they were big enough to carry his kit bag. We have much to thank him for. We are also eternally grateful to AJ for editing Simon's speech down to seventeen pages.
There will still time for deserts (too many options to list), coffee, port and more wine before carriages arrived.
Now, does anyone know someone who can score buckets of runs batting at number three? Ideally a left hander. Preferably one who does not loose a contact lens every eight minutes. So long Simon. It has been our privilege.
Dinner Dance 2020
Our annual Dinner Dance is the highlight of the year for many of us. It would take something massive to get us to cancel it. Turns out a global pandemic did the trick. We will return in 2021 (hopefully).
Dinner Dance 2019
Adopting the 'if it ain't broken don't fix it' approach we again met up at the Fox and Hounds for drinks before heading over to Will's for food and speeches. Mr Moulin provided excellent wine to accompany the dinner prepared by our host (thanks Rach).
Andy J supplemented the wine by handing round bottles of his homebrew to anyone brave enough to try it. Andy assured us it was at least a week old. Feedback was positive, with any loss of sight proving only temporary. Same again next year Andy please.
As is tradition awards were then voted on and handed out. Jon and Mole made sure there were no 'mistakes' with this entirely fair and democratic process.
Bowler of the Year - Will*
Batsman of the Year - Finley (that century helped)
Fielder of the Year - Robin
Players Player of the Year - Finley and Will (following the Booker prize approach by announcing our first ever joint winners)
* Mole is still contesting this, arguing that Will is rarely the best bowler in his own car these days.
After speeches and awards both Will and Mr Moulin produced rather nice bottles of port, which dissapeared faster than a BP batting collapse. A lovely end to a great evening.
Dinner Dance 2018
For the third year running Will offered up his house as the venue for the annual dinner dance. He obviously still has a couple of bottles of port he was keen to get rid of.
We again met at the Fox and Hounds for pre dinner drinks before heading of for the main event. Will and Rach (let's be honest, Rach) had done a fantastic selection of food, whilst Mr Moulin delivered the fine wines. We are not totally sure how he gets hold of it, but we are forever grateful.
Jon and Mole as usual took the lead on running (fixing?) the voting for awards. Whilst votes were counted / destroyed as appropriate Pete H handed over the 'Champagne Moment' award to Mark Ath for a great stop fielding in the 'Mole position', which some of you may know as short mid off. Howard received the 'best forgotten' trophy for a season greatly reduced by illness and injury.
About this point in the evening Richard V finally managed to work out which house was Will's, and concluded his 30 minute search of the surrounding area. He was just in time to see Andy thank the team for welcoming him and Richard to the team. For our part it has been a pleasure to have them join us this year.
Bowler of the Year - Pete H
Batsman of the Year - Mark Ath
Fielder of the Year - AJ Morris
Players Player of the Year - Mark Ath (it is a testament to how good the food was that Rachel received a vote in his category, despite not actually playing in a game).
Thus another season concludes. We will hone our technique in the nets over the winter months, before returning to the field next summer to be beaten by The Vine on a cold wet Thursday evening. Can't wait.
Dinner Dance 2017
After a very successful 2016 dinner dance we opted to stick with a winning formula, returning to the Fox and Hounds and then onto Will's for food, awards, and speeches.
Mr Moulin continued to show his importance to the team with a great delivery, this time of several large bottles of 'good ordinary' claret. Rachel cooked up a feast, and Howard provided a detailed and colourful set of team stats for us to mull over.
As is now the tradition all present voted for the seasons awards. The voting committee (this year Jon, Mole, and Rachel) then counted the votes, ignored the results, and selected winners based upon who they liked.
One of the more disappointing aspects of the season has been the absence through injury of our skipper Pete H. Having missed most games Pete decided to hand over his 'review of the year' speech to Will. Pete did however take the opportunity to ask us to raise a glass to Mike, who has moved on to pastures new. There was brief discussion on whether 'Other Mike' could now be promoted to full 'Mike' status but this was quite correctly shouted down.
Will gave a fine speech on a season in which he skippered the team for a great number of games. He even managed to win one. Eventually.
It was then over to Jon and Mole to announce the awards:-
Batsman of the year - Other Mike (retaining the award)
Bowler of the year - Jon (well, there has to be some benefit to being on the judging committee)
Fielder of the Year - Milo
shot of the year - Will
players player of the Year- Finley
It was at this point that Will started serving port in the largest glasses available. And thus the evening came to a natural end.
Dinner Dance 2016
Another year, and another new venue. We start at the Fox and Hounds public house for pre dinner drinks, before heading to Will's for food, speeches and awards.
Our host Rachel excelled herself, laying on a fantastic menu, and wine courtesy of Mr Moulin meant it wasn't long before many old favourite anecdotes got another airing
Voting followed the usual "Uganda Rules" approach. This year permanent trophies were unveiled for batsman (Batman mug), bowler (Bowler Hat), and fielder (hands catching a cricket ball), thanks to some creative work by our skipper Pete H.
Winners this year were:
Batsman of the year - Other Mike
Bowler of the year - Finlay Whale
Fielder of the year - Milo Whale
Player of the year - Other Mike
Best forgotten - the "fire brigade incident"
Champagne moment - seeing Simon turn up for our last net. We have missed him at number three this year.
shot of the Year - as no one could remember any specific shots (did I mention there was wine), we elected to give it to Simon, who has in the past hit many a great shot for BP.
After presentations to those who help to make these things happen, and to Ed who has now moved on to Devon, port was taken to end a lovely evening.
Dinner Dance 2014
Bowler of the Year - Mike Kearns
Fielder of the Year - Howard Whitehead
- Pete H - Skippering and sorting out the fixtures
- Jon W - Team selection
- Martin Kelly - Arranging such a fine dinner dance
- Mole - Managing the website
Batsman of the Year - Toby Whale
Bowler of the Year - Jon Whale
Fielder of the Year - Phil Mills
Speeches took place throughout the evening, with the occasional interruption when food was brought out (usually accompanied by a member of staff shouting 'mushrooms').
Batsman of the Year - Pete Thompson
Bowler of the Year - Daz Phillips
Fielder of the Year - Murali Deegutla (given on the night to second placed Jon Whale)
Batsman of the Year - Phil Moulin
Bowler of the Year - Will Whale
Fielder of the Year - AJ Morris
Rookies - Andy Day, Tony Wright
Comment of the year 'Don't go to the pub, we've been banned.' - Phil Mills
Champagne moment - HOWZAT!!! HOWZAT!!! - AJ Morris, on taking a caught and bowled.
- Will's brief appearance
- Andy Day collecting (and promptly damaging) Will's Bowler of the Year Award
- Pete Hutch's 'Another one gets the bust' lyrics
- The beer
- The food
- The company
Batsman of the Year - Simon Morris
Bowler of the Year - Jon Whale
Fielder of the Year - Ed Currie
Rookies - none
Champagne moment - Pete T's huge six (caught on camera) at Buckland Brewer
As usual, a fine evening of good food, Greek beer, and friendly banter.
Batsman of the Year - Ed Currie
Bowler of the Year - Daz Phillips
Fielder of the Year - Dave Perks
Rookies - Martin, Ed, Phil and Rich
Umpire award - Rich Watts
Comment of the year 'Just the one'? - Phil Moulin
Duck award (for 3 ducks in the season) -Daz Phillips
Champagne moment - Arriving at Pilgrims for the first time (presented to Martin)
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