PRESENTATION NIGHT FRIDAY 8 MAY 2009
Following a sojourn to the Mayflower in Hertingfordbury as part of the 2008 centenary celebrations, the 2009 presentation night returned to the humbler surrounds of the Hertingfordbury Park clubhouse. The evening was well attended with the majority of the 2008/09 squad present along with club officials and supporters. It was also nice to see a few old faces returning for the evening, including former manager Dave Greenwood and his family.Music for the night was provided by Jake Paine, son of coach Martin, and it was Mr Paine senior who made the first speech of the evening, live by satellite from Croatia (OK it was by mobile phone and a microphone but the effect was the same). He wished everyone well and even mentioned the 8-1 defeat in the latest match on his East European tour.
Once Glenn Draper and Lee Robinson finally turned up (apparently they had been trying to help Andy Draper find a way in without paying - obviously no-one told him this was a free event!) the proceedings kicked off. Chairman Mick Clarke made a brief speech, during which he thanked everyone at the Club for their contributions over the course of the 2008/09 season and then the presentation of awards began:
SUPPORTERS' PLAYER OF THE SEASON
For the second year running this award went to skipper Glenn Draper, whose excellent captaincy of the team certainly did not go unnoticed by the fans over the course of the season.
GOLDEN BOOT
In a season when the defensive statistics were more impressive and no players achieved double figures in terms of goals scored, this award went to Dave Hunt. Attila Korsoveczki scored the same total number of goals but he was not present to pick up his award.
BEST GOAL CELEBRATION
A new award this year presented to Max Branning's stunt double, Alex Scriven for his audacious leap into the Stable End Crowd following his equalising goal against Biggleswade Town in November.
PLAYERS' PLAYER OF THE SEASON
Once again Mr Hunt had to put down his beer and collect another award. This time it was his team-mates that reckoned that over the course of the season he hadn't been a bad player after all.
CLUBMAN OF THE YEAR
This award was given jointly to the two youngest members of the squad, Jack Bruno and Andros Zavros. They were there when the club reached its lowest ebb early in the season and they attended most training sessions and games throughout the season, despite rarely getting a start. For this devotion to the cause they were rightly given this award.
MANAGER'S PLAYER OF THE SEASON
For devotion to the club throughout the season, during which he notched up more than fifty appearances and put in some game-saving performances, Pablo chose Joel Maybury as his personal player of the season.
SPECIAL AWARDS
The management and players presented Deb with a bouquet of flowers for catering for their every need during the season. Apparently the award should also have included a box of chocolates, but it appears that Glenn Draper ate them! The final award of the evening went to the youngest person at the ceremony: A shirt signed by all of the players was presented to Andrew Persighetti for his tireless work throughout the season and in all weathers as a ball boy.
Once the awards had all been given out everyone returned to their drinks and eventually DJ Jake's music took over. Choreographic historians would have been amazed at some of the moves on show during the course of the evening and Simon Cowell would have been appalled at some of the vocal accompaniments. Anyway, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and they even did that daft thing where they all sit in a row and pretend to row a boat, or something! Cleaning up will have to wait until the Sunday work party as a number of those present have an FA Trophy final at Wembley to attend - those that are fit enough to make it of course!