Tuff Fitty End of Season Awards and Social

This year there was a new venue for our club’s end of Season social and awards evening, Angmering; a spacious venue.

Before a summary of the evening is set out, a huge Tuff thank you goes to our Master of Ceremony, Mr Mike Barrett who worked tirelessly for weeks beforehand to ensure the evening was full of activities, particularly after his recent broken elbow.

As everyone walked up the red carpet, yes, there really was a red carpet between two Tuff flags, Jon Roper and Tiff Orton were on hand to take pictures of the attendees. A stocked bar was well used before dinner was served. Where else would you hear the shout, ‘anyone want seconds’, before a choice of desserts were served

During dinner Mike interviewed Claire Moyle about her life and achievements. In the dash to get into the pool or onto track, the evening was a great way to get to know everyone better and as well as Claire’s story there was a photo quiz of Tuffs taken from obscure angles – name the Tuff? A quiz was also set with each table trying to be the guess the answers.

Further nice touches was a picture wall from some of the many Tuff events and race results from the past year. A Tuff Fitty year book was also prepared for members to comment in. The book appeared slow to move across the tables and we will subsequently have this available for those who missed it during the evening.

What proved a great way to encourage everyone to mingle was the roulette wheel, operated by a professional croupier who explained all the rules, and as people attended the table they were provided with chips with the aim to amass the greatest (pretend) winnings. There was some astute reading of the table with chips accumulating, some bidding large, whilst others adopted a more patient approach. James Mapley & Fi, steadily grew their pot, although it would appear to be more down to Fi’s skill as they achieved second position for the most chips. By the end of the evening Graham Liddell topped the ‘wealth’ list earning himself a bottle of Prosecco having accrued 196 pretend pounds.

The awards from the Club Championship saw winners arrive on stage as follows:-

Sprint Club Champions

Ladies :- Maisie Johnston 1st, Jo Baldwin 2nd, Juliette Reader 3rd.

Men:- Dominic Chapman 1st, Mark Walford 2nd, Tom Goddard 3rd

Age Group Winners: set out at Vet 40/ 50 / 60

Ladies : Iris Bennett, Maisie Johnston, & Claire Moyle

Men: Tom Frith, Dom Chapman, & Les Pearce.

Looking to become a trophy holder in 2023? Our Sprint Triathlon Championship race is Arundel Triathlon 21st May 2023

Standard Distance Triathlon Champions

Ladies :- Olivia Morey 1st, Jo Baldwin 2nd, Jessica Coombes 3rd.

Men:- Tom Goddard 1st, James Togneri 2nd, Chris Robinson 3rd

Age Group Winners: set out at Vet 40/ 50 / 60

Ladies : Claire Moyle

Men: Simon Thistlethwaite, Chris Robinson, & Les Pearce.

The Standard Distance Championship race has yet to be set as the calendar builds for 2023 – any ideas? let the committee know.

Middle Distance Triathlon Champions

Ladies :- Janet Shepherd – Champion

Men:- James Mapley 1st, Pete Littleboy 2nd, Simon Thistlethwaite 3rd

Age Group Winners: set out at Vet 40/ 50 / 60

Men: Pete Littleboy, Adrian Oliver, Mark Dinsdale

The Middle Distance Championship for 2023 is the Goodwood 255 Triathlon Festival scheduled for 30th July.

There is a fantastic footnote to this year’s race held at Ironbourne/ Eastbourne as James Mapley has just learnt because of his success in completing the tough, very hot course in just 4 hours 50, he has qualified for the Middle Distance European Championship in August – Congratulations James.

STRUN – Summer Tuff Run Series

Champions :- Mark Walford – 1st, Simon Thistlethwaite 2nd, Les Pearce 3rd

There were also some special awards.

Coaches Award

The Coaches decided between them their nominations for an award, covering commitment, dedication and improvement. The shortlist of nominees were; Dominic Amey, Jenny Oliver, Mark Walford, Alistair Evans, & Elaine Rousseau – well done to them all. The winner was Jenny Oliver

Members Member award

An on-line voting ballot was available to all members to vote on who they considered was their Club member of the year. The final shortlist comprised :-

Adrian Oliver, Verity Lacey, Shelley Babbage, Tiff Orton, Tom Goddard & Clive Harvey The winner was Clive Harvey

Club Captains Award

Our Captains for this year also recognised someone and their winner is Elaine Rousseau for all the goals she set herself, and achieved this year.

Joe Pascoe Award

A new award in memory of our late dear friend Joe Pascoe. In conjunction with Tania Pascoe, a new trophy was commissioned with the emphasis on courage and determination against adversity to be awarded annually. The winner for 2023 is Helen Bull. Unfortunately Helen could not be present as she was preparing for a marathon swim in London the next day. This just sums up Helen’s determination not to let her illness stand in the way of what she wishes to achieve.

Anthony Towers has been superb as Treasurer for over 26 years, and has just handed over the role to Vicky Cooper at the AGM. Anthony has been central to the stability and growth of Tuff Fitty helping to steer the club through some very lean years early on in the club’s history. It was therefore entirely appropriate that Clive Harvey made a presentation to Anthony on behalf of everyone in the club for this hard work over so many years – It is worth stating Anthony, who is also our longest serving member and a four time club champion continues as a Tuff Thank you Anthony.

The raffle followed with some fantastic prizes on offer. The final accounts for the evening are being finalised but what is certain is that all proceeds will be donated to our club’s nominated cancer charities. Goody bags were on offer as people left with non Tuff partners receiving a box of chocolates

Everyone agreed the evening was a great success and the feedback has been gratifying. In addition feedback forms were promptly published to enable the committee to build on this success for next year. Thanks again to Mike Barrett, and also Iris Bennett, plus the committee members. Difficult to mention all the helpers here, you know who you were; thank you it was appreciated. It was also gratifying to see so many stay behind to ensure the hall was cleared in time to hand back – Thank you to everyone who attended.