Just as the memory of Frankie Valli lives on, so does the North Wirral Velo! And what a night we had at the first (reformed) Annual Club Prize Presentation and Dinner.
A fantastic event, attended by over 60 members and guests, it was a night of drinking, eating, more drinking, awards, more drinking, speeches, more drinking, dancing and more drinking.
The evening started with a lovely hot buffet, although the some found the lack of beans on toast a bit disappointing. Next was the prize presentation. The awards were for the club champions in various disciplines throughout the year. The Champions are:
Road Race Champ – Dave Cuthill, promoted to 3rd cat in his first year of racing
Time Trial Champion – Robin Hennessy, sub 21 minute 10 mile TT
Club TT Event Champion – Mike Hornsby, put his fake claim of a wooden leg to good use
Hill Climb Champion – Jon Doyle, no sign of the iron lung he said he had to use to justify the amount of handicap he got
Junior Hill Climb Champion – Henry Timewell, the future of cycling and, as Louis Walsh commented, “he reminds me of a young Marco Pantani”
Mike Walsh Memorial Club Spirit Award – Mike Hurworth, for fantastic enthusiasm, determination and supporting all the other members, Mike was an easy choice for the award this year.
Most of the awards were presented by our guest of honour Pete Matthews, who went on to give us a great speech about the history of the club and some of the colourful characters that were involved over the years.
The last award, the Mike Walsh Memorial Award, was presented by Mike’s sister Cath. She gave a heartwarming speech about Mike’s time in the club and the tragic event when a careless driver took his life. Mike was 19 at the time, and Cath marked the 30th anniversary of his death last year by riding 68 miles (as he was born in 1968).
After all the formalities were over, it was onto the long awaited, and much anticipated, world premier of “The History of the NWV – a Ride Through Time” the movie. It looked like a simple thing to organise. The room was kitted out with super 1990’s multimedia technology, what could possibly go wrong? The short answer was “everything”. After a lot of crying,
spitting, swearing and crossing the white line by the creator of said film, it started to play.
However, just as the film was getting to the “good bit” another technical disaster and everything stopped. Frustrated and angry, the restless crowd started brandishing pitch forks and burning torches, looking to hunt down and torture those responsible for this travesty.
Fortunately, negotiations for the film to be released online in the near future averted any rioting from the gathering.
The night was then dedicated to dancing and Scott got down (as is tradition when he’s had a pint) to Jump Around by House of Pain (now are you wishing you went?)
So finally, onto the full version of the video, enjoy…
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