Day 31 - ECPC - London
2011-08-08
Date: Monday 8th August 2011 Venue: Spots & Stripes, London Frame Played: 25 Frames Won: 25 Frames Running Total: 698/775 Paul and I were discussing the riots on our way to London and wondering if the riots would come towards Southwark where we were doing the London leg in the Spots 8 Stripes club and organised by Nigel Smith. Either way, and unlike the talks of cancelling sport events, we had no intention of cancelling - after all, why the hell should some mindless idiots stop a charity from benefiting???
Besides, we were armed with our cue sticks and they would be used on the mindless idiots themselves!
Anyway, putting my anger towards those idiots aside, we were all looking forward to the evening as the plan for the evening was somewhat very different to all the exhibitions I had done so far.
To start off with, we had the help of three Nuts Magazine girls who gave up an evening to help promote the event.
The itinerary consisted of this; Five frames would be given to the winners of the raffle ticket holders, then five frames were to be auctioned off to the highest bidders, one by one, and the winner to be escorted to the table by the girls. Then the trick shots followed.
After that, it was a Nuts signing session by the girls (not sign language nor was there signing on any nuts) which proved surprisingly popular. Or not so surprisingly!
After that, there was a speed ball competition with ten players at £10 each, and the winner took £50 with £50 going to charity except if I won it, in which case all £100 went to charity and I managed to do it in 58 seconds, pipping a local fella who did it in 57 seconds but he mistakenly potted the black second to last which, but the club’s rules which required the black to be potted last, disqualified him!
After than, some friendly charity betting went on where people challenges Nigel himself to try and complete a clearance in under 1 minute 30 seconds, and in doing so, would generate a further £55 for charity.
During the auction, which went extremely well, the five frames we sold at £30, £40, £40, £50 and £100 totalling £260 for five frames. Brian Gray who was the gentleman who won the £100 auction donated the funds out of his own pocket, then announced that his company Morson International would double up whatever funds were raised on the night - a very, very generous pledge indeed and we and the charity thank you Brian as this meant the £1,281 raised on the night should turn out to be £2,562 - a very good night.
I think that the girls should get a lot of credit for the funds raised as they are certainly prettier than me (but not prettier than my wife I would like to announce).
The girls got into the mood of it all and just like a boxing match, they held the scores up and walked round the table after each frame and it was particularly funny when Nigel tried to do the same and wiggle his hips while imitating the girls!
All in all, a truly enjoyable night and one of those rare occasions that I got to bed late, but for the amount raised on the night, it was fully justified. Thank you Nigel and the club’s partners.