Sinfin RC Awards Night 2024

Photos of the evening here

The annual Sinfin RC Dinner & 2023 Awards Presentation took place on Saturday evening (20th January) at The Rolls Royce Pavillion on Moor Lane, the former venue for Sinfin's weekly club runs and famous chip cobs(!), prior to the move to The Crossbar @ Chellaston Park.

A healthy crowd of circa 80+ guests turned up suited and booted ready for a cracking evening's entertainment. Round dining tables lined the edge of the dance floor and were decorated with green,white and yellow balloons as was the entrance to the room itself.

After the initial drinks and mingling, with background music and vocals provided by Owen Doherty on acoustic guitar, everyone took to their seats before tucking into a delicious carvery of turkey or beef, or something less meaty if preferred.

Following the meal, Sinfin's new chairman Duncan Cowie stepped up to the mic to welcome everybody, introduce himself formally and set the scene for the forthcoming awards ceremony.

The format of the presentation changed slightly for this year, so that award winners could collect their award then move away from the stage for a photograph against a fantastic "match of the day" style backdrop decorated in Sinfin RC wordage and colours. The awards would also be presented by three legends of running and of the club: Chris Morrison former chairman, founder member and hugely successful veteran of running, also last year representing England; Graham Young, a long serving and loyal member of the club, and new member Dr. Matt Long, a Team Manager, Coach, Coach Educator and former county level athlete, who has represented Staffordshire on three occasions.

Brian Warner, club secretary, stepped up to the stage to pick out some of the 2023 highlights including charity fundraising made by some of the members, and general statistics on the most runs in each competition for various distances and disciplines by members.

Next up was Robert Lane, social media lead, who ran through the parkrun challenge statistics for the year. Brian returned to highlight some foreign races that members had taken part in before handing the microphone to Trevor Hibbert, fell running lead, to run through the fell awards before passing back to Brian for the XC round up.

Trophies were finally handed out by Chris Morrison for the Grand Prix, Graham Young for the Fell and Matt Long presented the XC and parkrun awards.

Awards were also presented for best male and female performances, club person of the year and the [late] Ian Harlow trophy was presented for the best newcomer. All prize winners are listed below.

Once all awards had been handed out, Chris Morrison delivered a lovely speech to remember former secretary Mick George who recently and very sadly passed away.

Finally it was time for the DJ to fire up some top tunes from decades past and the guests to shake their finely honed running booties on the dance floor. As an additional bonus, the "match of the day" awards backdrop doubled up to provide a form of "photo booth" with members posing for photos in front of it whilst donning various props in Sinfin green and yellow, adding some hilarity to what had already been a fabulous evening.

After the bar closed and people headed to the exits, a few members were allegedly spotted in the centre of Derby, further extending the evening into the early hours making merry.

Many thanks go to Mark Groves for the evening's photography, Nicky & Sash Pochibko for providing the "match or the day" Sinfin RC backdrop, and a huge thank you to Susan Winter who coordinated and organised the evening, which went extremely smoothly.

Let's all look forward to a load more Sinfin successes over 2024!

Role of Honour

Chris Morrison Grand Prix Trophy

Men:

1st: Matthew Shilcock

2nd: Samuel Broughton

3rd: Chris Swan

Ladies:

1st: Alyson Woodcock

2nd: Julie Heithus

3rd: Danielle Stack

Fell Running

Men:

1st male & 1st overall, therefore winning the Graham Young Trophy: Duncan Cowie

2nd male & 2nd overall: Brendan Devlin

3rd male & 4th overall: Trevor Hibbert

Ladies:

1st female & 3rd overall, therefore winning the Fell Shield: Caroline Scott

2nd female & 9th overall: Jules Heithus

3rd female & 10th overall: Jane Wade

Cross Country (XC) Trophy:

Men:

1st: Jason Ball

2nd: Duncan Cowie

3rd: Brendan Devlin

Ladies:

1st: Caroline Scott

2nd: Nicky Pochibko

3rd: Catherine Williams

Best Male Performance:

Matt Shilcock

Best Female Performance:

Catherine Williams

Club Person of the Year:

Martin Sower

The Ian Harlow Best Newcomer of the Year Trophy:

Lisa Doherty

parkrun Challenge

Men:

1st: Sam Broughton

2nd: Dan Winter

3rd: Kevin Purser

Ladies:

1st: Nicky Pochibko

2nd: Fiona Finnegan

3rd: Julie Muggleton

parkrun Volunteer Challenge

1st: Richard Brooksby

2nd: Deanna Smith

3rd: Michael Tuckwood