Jonno & Co top bill at Ilkley Rugby Club celebration dinner

Martin Johnson topped the bill at Ilkley Rugby Club’s sparkling fundraising dinner at the Craiglands Hotel on Thursday evening.

Johnson had been booked to speak before his recent appointment as the England Rugby Union’s team manager but still had no hesitation in fulfilling the obligation.

His greatest achievement was, of course, as the 2003 World Cup winning captain. Who will ever forget that day?

450 guests from all over region gathered at the famous old Ilkley hotel for a champagne reception. Rarely have so many people been accommodated in this way. The preandials and the dinner occupied almost the whole of the ground floor accommodation.  Many people commented they could not remember such a big event in the town for many years.

The place was a-buzz with rugby talk as the star-studded guest list mingled with guests, many of whom were being royally entertained by corporate hosts.

Johnson had also brought with him a number of ex-England colleagues including World Cup hooker Dorian West. His old back row partner at Leicester Matt Poole took on the role of master of ceremonies and auctioneer, a job which he did with some style and aplomb. Other leading guests were Charlie Hodgson and his wife Daisy, John Spencer ex-international and now Chairman of Club England, Fran Cotton, he of the archetypal photo of an England prop forward in the mud, Steve Smith, also an ex-international and a surprise appearance from Leeds Rhinos and Great Britain Rugby League Jamie Peacock. There were captains of industry and commerce and leading figures from the professions too. Skipper Iain McKenzie lead a table of the promotion winning Ilkley side who were warmly applauded on their achievement.

Whilst the event was overtly and unashamedly a fund-raiser, Chairman of the club and the inspiration behind the event Richard Scargill was determined that each and every guest should have a thoroughly enjoyable evening. He opened proceedings by urging everyone to shrug off the credit crunch and unfetter their wallets. The guests responded royally throughout the evening.

The dinner was served in good time and a sumptuous meal was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

The “entertainment” opened with a modified game of “heads and tails”.

It was quickly followed by an interview with Johnson and Peacock. Peacock is taking his GB Rugby League team down under to try and beat the Aussies on their own patch. Johnson was quick to offer some words of wisdom on this subject before the talk of code crossovers etc began. It was an absorbing interview with Poole in the chair. Both men came over as individuals of huge character, bravery and dedication to their cause.

Wives and girlfriends of the Ilkley players then came round to sell raffle tickets. Their charisma, style and good looks surely added to the take for that!

With the dinner plates cleared away the main fund-raiser of the evening took place – an Auction of things money can’t buy. The standard and quality of the “prizes” on offer was breathtaking. How these treasured items had been cajoled from their owners is amazing as, of course, is the generosity of the owners in donating them. Many unique sporting memorabilia items were put under the hammer and, to add to this, were items such as dinners cooked at home for 8 people, a Malt Whisky “tour” of Scotland and a luxury villa holiday for up to 8 people. Poole did a great job in holding the attention of the audience and eliciting bids.

The main event was the address by the great man Johnson.

What a presence he has both in stature and in his choice of words. Whilst it was not possible to expect a key-note speech on his policies in his new role, some insight into this came in the way he chose his recollections of his career and particularly the elevation to England rugby captain leading to the greatest final of a sporting event ever staged and then bringing home the World Cup from Australia. He spoke of the shock the team had when arriving back at Heathrow at 4 a.m. to a deafening wall of noise in the reception area, of the rapturous open top bus tour of London greeted by a million people, of meeting the Her Majesty the Queen and of the amusing experiences that went with it all. Many of the more amusing experiences were connected to Dorian West, a closet Welshman. His talk was entertaining and enlightening and totally in keeping with Johnson’s reputation as a man of supreme integrity and dedication to the game he so clearly loves.

It was followed by a few questions from the floor, one of which drew an interesting response. He was asked; “if both are fit, would you pick Wilkinson or Cipriani?” After a momentary deliberation he was assisted from the direction of Charlie Hodgson’s table. His answer was that as Hodgson was the only contender fit, Hodgson goes to New Zealand on this summer’s tour!

Everyone at Ilkley Rugby Club wishes the ex Bradford Grammar School student well with the tour and looks forward to seeing him at the club on his occasional visits to watch his brothers-in-law play.

The evening finished with every guest being supplied with a luxury gift bag provided by Next. This allowed guests to leave feeling as though they were going home with something more than they came with and hardly noticing the substantial amounts of money that had skilfully been extracted from them through the course of the evening.

One guest commented on his way to his car that he had never been to such a meticulously organised event of such quality with so many people being painlessly relieved of their money. That is borne out in the fantastic total raised on the evening alone of just in excess of £50,000. In addition, a brochure published for the event also raised a sum of similar proportions.

This now takes the club’s fundraising efforts closer to the magic target figure of £800,000 and the vision of a new clubhouse and changing rooms nearer to fruition.

The club wishes to thank each and every guest and all the sponsors (too many to list!) for their incredible generosity and, of course, Martin Johnson and the principal guests for making the event possible.

A great gallery of photos can be seen at www.image-and-style.co.uk go to 2008 events.

Related Links:
Development barometer
Club Development Plan
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