Posted: Sunday 14th February 2010

A Supper and Race Night.
30th January 2010

London Region Associates have introduced a new event - a Supper & Race Night - into their social Programme.  They held the first one on Saturday 30th January 2010 at the Horndon Village Hall. Sixty associates and guests signed up and came along.

The event was organised by the Thurrock Lions who run these evenings for groups as a fun way of fund raising for the charities they support.

Normally they make a charge for running a Race Night programme.  In this case the event was run for the Associates as a thank you for funding the CD Projector that was bought with a donation from Procter & Gamble London Plant benevolent fund.  Maureen Germaney and Tony Kennard (London Associates) sit on the fund committee and identify local projects that could benefit from help from the fund.  On the night, Tony formally presented the projector to Dominic Cox, their representative and the evening's organiser.

 
Tony Kennard presents the projector to the Thurrock Lions.

Dominic Cox with the evening's Tote.

The Lions raised £3,000 in 2009 from running these events. Now they have their own projector they expect to run more events and raise more for charity in 2010. Dominic Cox organises the Race Nights for the Lions.

Preparations for the start of the races :

Place your bets.

The Tote.

The projectionists - Frank with his son.

The format of the evening was very simple.  There were 7 races projected on the screen.  The minimum bet was 20p per horse (or animal, as it turned out) per race. All of the money taken per race was shared to the winners.

The first race was the P&G Handicap - and turned out to be Pigs Racing!  Race two was a Flat Horse race. 

Racing on the flat.

The Fairy Liquid Chase - race three - was a Dog Race.
There was then a break for a supper of Fish or Chicken & chips.

After the break the Pringles Pacer was a steeplechase.
The Steeplechase.

Race five, the Close Shave Dash, involved Pigs again. 

The Close Shave Dash.

Dogs were back for Race six - the Flash Harry Handicap. Then as a surprise the last race of the evening had Horses running backwards with the last horse being the winner.

Countdown for the backwards race....

Some of the participants.

Brian's Table.

Dave's group.

John, Marguerite and friends.

There were positive comments about the evening as Associates put away the furniture.  It had been a very enjoyable fun night.

Text: Ron Suttling; Photos: Derek Germaney.