We started the season with our AGM in August. Bill Shirley announced that he would be standing down from the Committee. Bill was presented with a little memento to show our gratitude for the work he has done over the years.
We interrupted the AGM to listen to our Guest speaker Sue Hickson –Marsey who give a very lively talk on her life as a coxswain with the Humber Pilots and a member of the Hornsea Inshore Rescue.
September saw the first of our monthly meetings to which the Football Club once again provided us with a lovely buffet lunch which was greatly appreciated by our members.
We were delighted to have as our first speaker of the season Hull City’s assistant coach Andy Crosby. We also saw the start of voting for the Senior Tigers player of the Year. The 20thof September saw a group of you off to visit the Hartlepool Naval Museum on the first of Barbara trips of the season.
Our October meeting was held in the Circle Restaurant due the fair using our usual room. The Christmas lunch menu was available. We had the delights of Radio Humberside sports commentator and raconteur Burnsy as our Guest speaker who entertained us with his varied stories and antidotes . The October outing took us to the National Brewery Museum in Burton.
November saw us back in the Circle for our meeting to everyone’s delight. Some details of our impending Christmas Lunch were given to our members other details were kept under wraps. Rob Wilson brought everyone up to date regarding our web site which was attracting a reasonable number of visitors but lacked those return visits. This month’s excursion saw us visiting the home of Bradford City. We were in safe hands with the afternoons speaker namely Hull City no1 goalkeeper David Marshall. Helen Carter and Adrian Ellis have been co-opted onto the committee.
We held our usual December Christmas lunch on the 6th to which 185 members and guest enjoyed a great afternoon of good food and entertainment. One of our guests John Davies was presented with small gift to show our appreciation of the work he has put in to help the young people of our community through his position within the Tigers Trust. The entertainment was provided by a couple of local artists whose performances were enjoyed by the majority of our members.
The New Year started full of expectation with our Football team making steady progress up the league. We also saw Peter back in charge of the raffle after him missing the Christmas lunch due to illness. What a brilliant day we all had from the invitation from Acklams to join them on a trip to tour the Plaxtons factory at Scarborough, with added bonus of travelling back on their brand new 76 seater coach’ What an outstanding guest speaker we had to entertain us, a true sporting legend the one and only Johnny Whiteley MBE. An absolutely fantastic afternoon’s entertainment we all enjoyed.
February saw the anniversary of our memorabilia day; Tony Conway updated everyone with progress to our own online Memorabilia project. Tigers Trust has also shown an interest in our project especially regarding the Alzheimer’s possibilities. We welcomed the USA international Eric Lichaj as our guest speaker a very humble person with no airs or grace’s a pleasure to have him as our guest. Our outing this month was to Elland road then onto the fantastic Leeds Amouries. The proposed new Clubs Crest was unveiled this month and pictures of it was on display with general approval from members.
We have an average of 150 members that regularly attend our meetings which is a fantastic number and March was no exception. We welcomed 10 new members this month bringing our total membership to a healthy 230. The Crucible Theatres at Sheffield was our first of call this month then onto the Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet for another brilliant day out. Our thanks were extended to David Bond who stepped in at very short notice to be our guest speaker this month. David kept us entertained with memories from his days as a journalist with the Hull Daily Mail.
April wasn’t quite what we were all expecting our speaker Liam Ridgewell was involved in road accident that morning thankfully Liam was uninjured but was unable to make the meeting. Despite this setback we all fun, Tom Wilkinson prepared a brilliant 25 question music quiz with a possible 50 answers. Quite a few members exceeded over 40 correct answers. Our outing this month was to the last of the summer wine country Holmfirth. What a great trip this turned out to be the tour in the little bus was one not to be missed. We then finished up at Huddersfield Town AFC for a tour of their stadium.
May saw us hold our end of season lunch in the Circle Restaurant the Tiger Events Team provided us once again with another superb lunch. Later in the afternoon we were entertained with one of our local magician Roy Burrell. The highlight of the afternoon was the presentation of the Gerry Ashton Player of The Season Trophy. This Trophy was being presented for the very first time. We have to thank Pat Betts for all her hard work in running this competition it was Pat endeavor in collecting and correlating all the information which produced our winner Jarrod Bowen. Thank you Pat.
A special mention here for the person who has ran our raffle for the last 4 years Peter Wilson. Peter announced at the lunch would be the last raffle for him. Peter volunteered to take over running the raffle back in 2015 when the present committee took over running the Senior Tigers. The time and effort Peter has put in over this period is outstanding resulting in taking the raffle to a high level to which we are all grateful. So Peter once again we thank you for all the effort you have put in in making the raffle such a success.
Finally all that remains is to thank you the members for giving the committee you’re backing in the various activities we have tried to bring to you this season.