It certainly was a memorable night and made even more special by the original team players gracing us with their presence and paying emotional tributes to Alan and Geoff for starting the Club. The purpose of the evening was to celebrate and as the image shows we certainly did that. The other thing we wanted to do was to give recognition to all our volunteers, without them there really would not be a club.

Ocean Drive an acoustic duo provided the live music and Charlotte and Darryl’s beautiful voices were enjoyed by everyone. We would highly recommend them for private and corporate events.

For those of you unable to attend, you were missed, and for those that did, thank you. You made it special.

Our MC for the evening was Andy Powell, and we would like to thank Tim for pointing us in his direction. Andy is the consummate professional and Mr Entertainment himself. He kept everything running smoothly and even got everyone to sing along with him to “That’s Amore” (yep the image above) How a singalong can turn into a competition can only be because he brought out the competitive nature of everyone in the room. He even offered the winner 2 tickets to his Monday Matinee Cabaret Performance at Stockport Plaza so if you are at a loose end its at 1pm on the 22nd of September and there are a few tickets left.

Our speaker was the fabulous Dean Windass. He kept us laughing with his many stories of his antics on and off the field including his time as a football pundit and the complexities of the job. I can’t share the content as 1. I wouldn’t do it justice but 2. They are his stories and it’s all about how he tells them. All without notes or queue cards which is pretty impressive.

Our Awards, for me this was one of the most important parts of the evening, so I wanted to share with you who got what.
The Legacy of a Legend Award – this was given to 2 recipients both highly deserving of this incredibly special award.
Alan Rainford for his work as founder and Chairman for 20 years. During this time, he established set the foundation for the club we have today by applying for the original Chartered Standard Status which ensured that all subsequent Volunteers continued to uphold the exacting standards demanded by the FA.

Geoff Ryan for his outstanding work as the other founder and for over 20 years the Club Treasurer keeping tight hold of the purse strings when subs were collected weekly. He still has the cash tin in which he counted out the money weekly to pay it into the bank.

The Catalyst for Change Award – this was given Lee Price. Our former Chairman who introduced Girl’s football to the Club when his daughter Ruby asked why we didn’t have a girls’ team. Being a good dad before all else he did what he had to do and set up a girls’ team and managed it as well as running her twin brothers’ boys’ team. Although he stepped down as Chairman 2 years ago, he is still involved with our Wildcats (5–11-year-old girls’ recreational football) and through this programme he has established a regular direct route for girls to feed into our girls only teams.

Our Shine like a Diamond Award went to Sue Hoyne. She was the first ever Social Secretary for the Club with a regular Social Calendar of Events getting parents and grandparents involved and ensuring that the Club maintained its community spirit.

The Coaches Coach Award was given to Russ O’Connor. Russ received the most nominations from many of the girl’s coaches who said how invaluable his help had been when they first started. Russ is the first to admit that he can be overly passionate and has on occasion been ticked off when managing his team, but his heart is in the right place and the other club coaches have recognised how unselfish he is with his time, advice and guidance whenever needed.

The Parents Coach Award had to go to Mark Baker. We don’t often get much of a response from parents for a lot of things (I know you are busy) but when this request went out, I had a bigger response for Mark than any other coach. The reasons were his dedication and care for the players and parents. His fair treatment of everyone and despite being a Coach with Rose Hill for his other son he is 100% reliable and consistent in his approach to coaching and developing his players.

Our Rising Star Award went to William Samuels. He has been with us as a volunteer coach for just over a year and in that time has shown unbelievable commitment to learning everything there is about coaching even taking himself off to America to learn from the Americans how they deliver Soccer sessions. Our U10s White have and will continue to hugely benefit from his enthusiasm and professionalism.

Although none of them were able to make it our Coaching Team Award went to 3 deserving recipients Steve Higginson, Derrick Spencer, and Stephen Cox. The work they have done with the U15g last season is a true reflection of how well they work together and the positive effect of that on their team. The players have received many accolades, and we thought it was about time the coaches got their recognition. Sadly, they will need to wait until after the 20th before receiving the actual awards but when they do, I’ll be sure to add their photos to our FB pages.

The final award of the evening was the Heart of Marple Athletic Award and that went to Sharon Humphries. This was very much appreciated. At the moment it’s true that I do eat sleep and breathe Marple Ath what with organising the event and the Book which has been delayed due to the volume of work involved so I put it on hold but anyone one that pre-ordered the books, I have your contact details and will update you when they are ready. That said I am keen to get more people involved in the running of the Club as well as all the little jobs that need to be done and I genuinely believe that many hands make light work. So watch out for the recruitment advertisement and please get involved.