The SCCC Annual Club Lunch 2023, is an opportunity for Stockport Community Cycling Club to reflect on last year’s events and reward its members for their efforts (you can view previous years’ annual lunches here: 2022, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013).

This was our first annual club lunch since the sad passing of our leader, Jim Court. It was, therefore, always going to be a lunch with plenty of reminiscing.

Below are members at their respective tables, ready for lunch to be served.

As in previous years, the event was held at Hyde Bank Farm in Romiley. While this has now become more of a wedding and function venue, due to our many years of patronage, they continue to provide us with a warm welcome.

We started with some enjoyable food, before moving on to the awards ceremony.

Club Mileage Medals

First up, medals were awarded to members who have completed 250 miles (bronze), 500 miles (silver) or 1000 miles (gold) cycling with the club.

Then we moved on to 2500 club miles awards. These were awarded to two of our members this year:

Next, we awarded a medal to one of our members who this year had reached 5000 club miles cycling with us:

The trophies

Following the medals, it was then time to award the trophies.

We began with the Most Unfortunate Rider of the Year. This year it was presented to Sue Beardsell, who sadly broke her foot following an argument with a loose water bottle while on the SCCC Lancaster club weekend. Well done Sue … ermmm, perhaps, ‘well done’ isn’t quite the correct terminology, but you know what we mean :-).

The Newcomer of the Year award was presented to Ken Perry.

Our CERA Cycloan Unsung Hero of the Year Award is presented to a club member (who is not a leader, and who may not be an obvious candidate for the Club Person of the Year Award) for unselfish deeds in helping the club and our members. This year it was awarded to Martyn Bowen.

Finally, the newly named main trophy, the Jim Court Memorial Trophy, was awarded to the Club Person of the Year. This year it was presented to John Wilson.

Barbara, Jim’s wife, has always been an important supporter of our cycling club, and this year came along as our guest of honour. We provided her with some flowers as a thank you for attending along with her family. It was good to see them all.

Finally, we watched the annual ‘Review of the Year’ video – as always put together by Andy S. This was another excellent compilation of ‘moments’ taken from the previous year of SCCC cycle rides.

(The video will appear here when it has been uploaded to the internet)

The Club Lunch 2023 had been another great annual awards ceremony. Well done to everyone who was presented with a medal or award, they were thoroughly deserved. As we look forward to many more enjoyable club rides in the upcoming year, who knows, at next years club lunch, maybe it will be you who is going up to collect one of our medals or awards!