Saturday 2nd December 2006

Awards Night

This was held at Blaenavon Constitutional Club on Saturday, December 2nd and proved to be a memorable evening with the band and supporters enjoying a karaoke and disco. The evening commenced with the presentation of cups and awards, junior band member David Langley getting the Crispin Rudge Memorial Award for Junior Bandsperson of the year, he also won Most Promising Player Runner Up and Dafydd Bayliss won Best Learner. The ballot by band members saw the band chairman (fix!) Lynn Davies, getting the Bill Jones Memorial Cup for Bandsperson of the year, whilst conductor Alun Hathaway elected trombonist Darryl Preece as the winner of the Owen Meredith Memorial Cup for Most Promising Player. John Corcoran was presented with a plaque to record his part in winning the percussion section prize at Wychavon. Tributes to the hard working ladies who raise money on a weekly basis were paid to Teresa Sanders and Brenda Nicholas. Also mentioned were Jan Jones, Lynfa Protherough and Joan Baldock. Floral bouquets were presented to Teresa and Brenda.

The chairman gave a summary of the year and recalled the Charity Concert in February when over £3000 was given to Velindre Hospital in memory of Gareth Protherough and Bill Baldock, the fourth place in Swansea in the Area; second in Ebbw Vale; fourth in Weston; first in the Eisteddfod; second at Wychavon, first at Ammanford and third in Treorchy. An altogether satisfactory year and just missing out on promotion to the first section. Alun Hathaway also reflected on a good year and said that the band had improved greatly during the year.

Having got the serious part out of the way, it was time to party and among the karaoke-ees were the Blues Brothers alias Martin and Darryl, the inseparable twins Jane and Joanne and pop idol Evan. Even the children got in on it and Keiran and Bethan gave it some welly on “Bob the Builder”.A first class buffet of rolls, sandwiches, pasties, pizza, etc preceded a disco by DJ Alan  ….. and as the bar till bell rang merrily, so more people took to the floor to display their footwork.  A very satisfactory night finished at midnight and it was back out into the wind and the rain.