Ventnor Rugby Club’s Carnival Triumph
All the hard work put in by the Carnival Team paid off with the award of The Tom Harding Cup for Best Local Entry and a Third Place in The Associations and Clubs category of the Ventnor Carnival, Wednesday 9th August 2023.
Massive congratulations and thanks to James Blake for bringing it all together and to Bob, Gareth and Bradley for putting in the work. There were some outstanding performances yesterday evening, namely:-
From Bob and Gareth for the sounds and lights emanating from the DJ booth. The set was epic and had the whole place bopping – no doubt in Chale, Brighstone, Shanklin and a good part of Normandy as well! The only concern was when they got the smoke machine going and we all thought that the hard-pressed wiring had finally given up!
From Zack for his immaculate driving (and for counter-balancing the weight of the 10kVA generator strapped into the back of Bob’s pick-up!).
From Lewy, who did the full circuits in flippers (part of pre-season training no doubt).
From Rosco and Tommo who literally danced the whole route.
From Beast for his intriguing and yet persuasive input into the whole gender debate.
From The Rev Warren Riches for not missing one line-out at the blast of Clive’s whistle. (A point of historical accuracy Clive: Admiral Nelson may have been self-conscious about his missing eye but I am pretty sure he didn’t cover it with pink-rimmed sunglasses!).
From Charlie whose sales pitch with the charity bucket was more Bob Geldof than we’re used to!
From Ed who must have lost 10kg wearing the inflatable shark’s outfit throughout. His battle with the tyrannosaurus outside the British Legion will live long in the memory.
From Frances, Jack and Clive for distributing all those leaflets. Between us and Kelly, Heather and their Ventnor Youth Football girls, we handed out a thousand leaflets to the crowd promoting rugby, Ventnor FC, Ventnor youth football and Ventnor petanque at Watcombe. Hopefully one or two will hit home and a few more people will realise what our amazing arena has to offer.
It was good to meet Steve Cooper, Ventnor’s mayor who promises to come up to Watcombe during the season. (There was some relief that no-one swiped his chain of office!)
On a more serious note, it was good to meet Luke Orton’s mother enroute. She is so grateful to the club for the support they are giving Luke and the family while he recovers from surgery in Southampton. Let’s keep the support going – see Crowdfunder for Luke Orton.
All in all, a brilliant evening that displayed Ventnor RFC and the Watcombe community at its vibrant best.
Best Regards
James
JAMES MORTON
Ventnor RFC
