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I was, as always, stressed out ahead of a Clarets Mad dinner, worried that things might go wrong and that the night could be a disaster. Once more I needn't have worried at all as we all had an excellent night out and broke all records when it came to raising funds for the Clarets Mad Youth Foundation.
Once all the money comes in we will have raised in excess of £2,000 from the evening and that's smashed the previous highest of just under £1,500 for an end of season dinner. It wasn't just the money raised that made it such a great night, and that means there are a lot of people to thank.
Firstly, it has to be Tony (tybfc) who works tirelessly getting the raffle and auction organised, the main sources of fundraising. Again he, and wife Pam, were in excellent form and aided by our new auctioneer Colin (flixtonclaret) ensured all went well.
Every one of the guests played their part, but what about our special guests? Young professionals Michael King and Dom Knowles were an absolute credit to Burnley Football Club on the night. I think initially they wondered what they'd walked in to but soon settled down once jdrobbo got going.
Martin Dobson and his wife Carole (known on the night as Dobbo and Mrs Dobbo) were again welcome guests as were Willie and Rita Irvine, and we should offer our big thanks to Willie who was guest speaker and went down a treat, with everyone particularly enjoying his banter with another Irishman on the next table.
That other Irishman was of course Jimmy McIlroy who was seated with former Championship winning team mates Jimmy Robson and Trevor Meredith who attended with his wife. The three of them were fantastic guests and gave so much of their time to chat to everyone about their time with the club. What great ambassadors for Burnley Football Club they are.
I'm only sorry John Angus had to drop out at the last minute because of health problems. We all wish you well and hope everything is fine again John and look forward to seeing you at a future dinner.
I have to thank some of the staff at Burnley Football Club too who continue to support the dinners and our fundraising in general. There's Anthony Fairclough and his commercial team, Chris Emmerson and Kev from catering (even though Kev had just seen his team Forest lose to Blackpool).
A special thanks to retail manager Lisa Merrifield and her team including Tom Mackie. They were so helpful in arranging the special shirts that we were able to auction. Their support was invaluable. I think you owe me one Lisa!!!
Already plans are underway for next year's dinner, but a final word about the Jamboree. All guests are given name badges to wear so we all know who each other are. Everyone joins in and wears them. I looked across at one table and saw a gentleman wearing a badge that simply said 'JIMMY MAC'. As if anyone needed help in knowing who he was.
It's our golf day next, and that's already fully subscribed. Next season will see our third pool competition and a second race night before we sit for our seventh dinner at the end of the 2010/11 season.