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Welcome to the year of Dan
Message from incoming Chairman – Dan Aldworth
It is a great honour for me to be writing my Coral casino bonus incoming Chairman's statement. Colchester Colne Round Table is a fantastic group of guys and in the five years I have been a member I have made some amazing friends and experienced things I may never have otherwise done such Click here as a static line parachute jump. To be asked to lead this group of guys for the next year is therefore a genuine privilege.
I have now appointed my council for the year ahead and I believe the mix of experienced heads and new enthusiasm will ensure this year has something for everyone and we can pick up where John Armstrong left off, pushing this table forward so that we can continue to adopt, adapt and improve.
So what can we expect from my year? Well the charity I have picked is St Helena Hospice. A fantastic local charity, which many of you will be aware of and I know they are keen to work with us to ensure that the 2014 Colchester Half Marathon is just as successful as the sell out event in 2013. The Colchester Half Marathon has become a flagship event for Colchester Colne Round Table and has contributed directly and indirectly towards many local charities. We are very proud of this fact and plan to ensure it continues for many years to come.
Fundraising is only part of what we are about and during my year I want to continue with the networking and socialising aspects of table ensuring that we are doing all we can to let all prospective members aged between 21 and 40 know what it is we do and how much fun they can have if they get involved. The activities planned during my year range from beer and curry evenings, Black Tie Balls, firewalking BBQ's and tank driving to mention a few. We are also set to have a group of tablers from Wetzlar in Germany (Colchester's twin town) come and visit in May.
So here's raising a glass to the year ahead.
April 16th, 2013 | Category: Chairman | Comments are closed
Colchester Schools Prom 2013 - Friday 15th March, Charter Hall
Colchester Colne Round Table are proud to present the 2013 Colchester Schools Prom on Friday 15th March, 7pm at The Charter Hall, Cowdray Avenue, Colchester.
This musical spectacular features performances from orchestras, bands, choirs, duos and soloists from:
Colchester Academy
Colchester County High School for Girls
Colchester Royal Grammar School
Colchester Sixth Form College
The Gilberd School
Philip Morant School and College
Manningtree High School
Plus, a fantastic finale featuring all the schools
Photo courtesy: Lindsay Wakelin Photography http://www.lindsaywakelinphotography.com/blog/ and 01206 823299
This year's programme contains an exciting and eclectic selection of both classical and more contemporary music which will give the participating schools a fantastic opportunity to showcase their talent.
Heroes seem to be the theme in this year's programme. There are appearances from Spider-Man, Superman, James Bond and even a hint of the Lone Ranger. The musical co-ordinator is once again Nigel Hildreth MBE, Head of Performing Arts at Colchester Sixth Form College, who has tirelessly organised this event for the past 14 years.
The Schools Prom is a community event. Any profit raised from ticket sales is divided between the Colchester Young Musicians Trust, which helps support children with musical activities that they otherwise would not be able to afford, and Colchester Colne Round Table's nominated charity for this year; The Invicta Foundation, who are working to raise funds to support wounded service personnel and their families.
We hope you can make it along and have a fantastic evening.
Jon Armstrong
Chairman, Colchester Colne Round Table
Tickets are priced at £8 for adults and £3 for children. Please call the Charter Hall Box Office on 01206 282020.
You can also buy Colchester Schools Prom 2013 tickets online.
Nigel Hildreth
Nigel Hildreth is currently Head of Performing Arts at The Sixth Form College, Colchester. He studied at Sheffield University and has taught music in Essex for over 30 years. He is known locally for his conducting and his compositions which include three symphonies, two concertos as well as chamber music of many kinds. He was commissioned by Colchester Arts Centre and Orchestra Live for pieces that were played in Tymperleys Clock Museum and St Botolph's Church by members of the Britten Sinfonia.
Nigel started the Colne Valley Youth Orchestra along with a number of other youth and amateur groups. He was presented with the "Arts For All" Award by the town of Colchester in 1996. The presentation of this award led to the establishment of the Colchester Young Musician's Trust. In 2011 he was awarded an MBE in the Queen's birthday honours list for his services to music education.
As well as teaching he is also a trustee on the board of the Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester Youth Arts Partnership and the Royal Academy of Dance. He is proud to be an honorary member of Colchester Colne Round Table.
Colchester Young Musician's Trust
This fund enables young people in the Colchester area to participate in residential music courses and overseas tours by providing a small contribution towards the costs. Since its foundation in 1996 many young musicians have benefited from bursaries to enable them to participate in Youth Orchestra tours and school residential music visits. Proceeds of tonight's concert together with previous school prom events and donations help this trust. If you would like to know more please email hildrethnigel@colchsfc.ac.uk
Any parent wishing to apply for a bursary should write to Nigel Hildreth CYMT, c/o The Sixth Form College, North Hill, Colchester CO1 1SN or email hildrethnigel@colchsfc.ac.uk
March 12th, 2013 | Category: Chairman, Charity, Local news | Comments are closed
Message from incoming Chairman - Jon Armstrong
Round Table is about two things in particular – having a good time and helping the local community.
In Round Table, we've always made sure that our members are able to meet at least twice a month for a variety of activities, whether they be evenings down the pub, sport, poker nights, ten pin bowling or barbecues. But it's not just about having a laugh – we also raise thousands of pounds for charity each year.
This year our charity is The Invicta Foundation. Invicta was set up by Stephen and Cheryl Hall when their son Ashley was severely wounded in Afghanistan. They discovered that when wounded service personnel are discharged from hospital, they may have to wait for months before they are ready to begin their rehab. During that time, they often have to fall back on their families to look after them, something which can be incredibly difficult.
Invicta plans to raise £500,000 to meet the cost of building a home in Colchester where men and women wounded in the service of their country can spend time before they are ready to move onto rehab. The home would be fully kitted out for their use.
We raised over £17,000 for charity last year. We hope to do even better for Invicta during the year to come. Plans are already under way for the third Colchester Half Marathon which is our main fund raising event. I hope that as many people as possible will take part, either by running, helping on the day or sponsoring participants.
Chairman, Colchester Cone Round Table
Message from Immediate Past Chairman - Richard Nieuwenhuis
What a fantastic, enjoyable and rewarding year I have had as Chairman of Colchester Colne Round Table. I was very proud and honoured when, in April 2010, John Mackenzie asked me to be his Vice Chairman and I was subsequently voted in as Chairman in 2011. A big thank you to everyone who supported me during my year and in particular to my Council, without your help it would not have been such a success. It's certainly not a job one can do single handedly! Particular thanks to Programme Officer Chris Bush, Ex Vice Chairman Giles Norrington, Vice Chairman Jon Armstrong, Sports Officer James Lewis, Secretary Matt Eaton, Membership Officer Gordon Kearney, Treasurer Dan Aldworth, Assistant Events Coordinator Jim Crafford and of course to the President Tim Mann. I will have many lasting memories from the last twelve months and here are just a few of the highlights:
Comedy Club Night (the first Programme event)
John Mac came runner up in the joke competition with; "What's the difference between Osama Bin Laden and a fridge?….The council will take away a dead fridge!"
Hospice Fete number 22
Blitzed the previous record by achieving £725 Profit for the Hospice.
Halfords Tour Series Cycling + Beer Festival
Highlights – Pucks Folly beer and the Belgian triple filtered 8.5% proof!
Zoo Trip
Still hung over from the beer festival and Ed brings along beer and wine to drink in the children's adventure playground!
Cricket vs 367
More a lowlight, we lost….say no more!
Retiring Tablers Chuck Out Bash
An enjoyable event in Trotters and great to hear stories of old from Lotty, Kirit, Tim & Piers.
Colchester Colne Round Table Charity Dinner Dance 2012
See below – Thank you to Giles Norrington and his team who with a lot of hard work in difficult times managed to raise a very creditable £4208 for MSRC.
See below – our main event of the year. We were able to build on the success of the 2011 event and huge thanks to the massive effort from Race Directors James Lewis, Louise Neville and their team for their achievement. The event raised £11,750 for local charity MSRC.
Credit to Nigel, James, Rodney, Tim who pulled off another very enjoyable event. Thank you also to those that hosted students and staff from Germany and Sweden.
Four Tablers from CCRT form part of a world record attendance for a rugby club match when they attended Saracence vs Harlequins at Wembley stadium. Yes a world record, something my predecessor had planned but failed to pull off in his term! Sorry John J
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with my chosen charity the Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre (MSRC) and met new friends at the charity who I will continue to enjoy working with in the future. Having formed a close relationship with them over the last twelve months I have seen the hard work and effort their staff and volunteers put into their fund raising events, they truly are one big family. They work for such a good cause in the help and support they provide for MS sufferers and the money we have raised, a grand total of £17,000, will go towards setting up an MS Centre of Excellence to be opened later in 2012.
Finally I want to wish my successor Jon Armstrong all the very best for his year in the Chair. Jon is a great chap who I have great confidence in to take this Table forward from where I have left off. We are a strong Table with strong traditions and long may this continue.
Richard Nieuwenhuis
The 2012 Colchester Half Marathon
Take:
1 Half Marathon
1,400 Runners
Mix with:
A small army of volunteer marshals
Bake for 1 hour 8 minutes (winning time) and the result?
£140,000 raised for good causes (estimated)
3 years ago, the lads at Colchester Colne Round Table wanted a new flagship fundraiser. All manner of things were discussed and in the end the idea of running a Half Marathon was settled upon. When we say running we mean organising, not, actually running … we Tablers are lots of things, but runners we are not!
Two Half Marathons later, with our charity of this year, the Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre benefiting directly to the tune of £17,000 the results are amazing. Not only has the event grown faster than any other local half marathon, it's now Colchester's biggest voluntary fundraising event, raising tens of thousands for charity.
But at the core of it is something really special. You see, there is a missing ingredient from the above recipe. And that is The Round Table spirit. At the heart of it all, we are a group of guys from Colchester wanting to make a difference but do it having fun. Do it with a smile. Do it in a pub.
Which is just as well, really. The HQ for all things Half Marathon planning is the Bricklayers pub. Seriously. A round of beers, another round, some planning. Add laughs and friendship and that's the magic of Table. We are committed and very hard working to put on a great Half Marathon but we just as committed to making sure the sporting officer keeps the tab open behind the bar.
You may be reading this thinking you want a new challenge. Nothing too heavy, mind you. Something fun, but something worthwhile. Well, take a look at us. We even have a twitter site, as rumour has it, you can also do this from a pub.
In short, we think we have a magic set of ingredients. 140,000 times over.
PS Drop us a note, come along and meet us by clicking here – and we'll make sure the sporting officer buys you a beer.
April 29th, 2012 | Tags: Colchester Half Marathon | Category: Charity, Local news | Comments are closed
We had 104 in attendance which is slightly down on where I had hoped but it was still a respectable number and the Hall certainly didn't look empty, the Orchestra played and set the scene for what turned out to be a great night all round. Our Chairman's welcome was informative and well received (dodgy jokes excepted!) and the speaker from MSRC explained what the funds raised would be going towards. Heads and tails was slightly contentious with it being pitched at £5 however the decision had been taken and we needed a quick boost to the funds as the event cost £427 to put on. Table Grace was eloquently read by Jon Armstrong then dinner was served. Le Talbooth did a great job of the catering once more, the service was slick and the food was tasty. Port courtesy of The Colchester Wine Company was served after dinner and proved the undoing of some!
The fundraising then began in earnest, raffle tickets had been sold over dinner and we had some great prizes on offer, thanks to: Chris, Matt, Jon, for their assistance during this and of course a special thank you to Zoe Mann for drawing the winning tickets from the basket. The raffle and 'heads and tails' raised the sum of £1,565 which is great. We then moved onto the auction hosted by our star of the show, Jim Crafford, ably assisted by: Matt, Jon, John, Rodney, Chris, James. Jim really did a great job once more, extremely professional with great descriptions of lots and gauging exactly when a lot had reached its limit and putting the hammer down and moving onto the next, this kept the momentum up and kept control of the room. Well done Jim. Thanks to the great generosity of local firms and individuals we had some lovely lots once more, some should have made much more but that's the way it goes on the night, anyway, the total raised by the auction was £3,325 and we had a generous donation of £100 from ex-Tabler Kirit Bedia so put that with the other sums and we get £4,563 total raised after costs.
The band then played and the people danced the night away!
Thank you to all who donated or gained items for the raffle and auction we don't have an event without these. I will be sending individual thank you letters on behalf of Table to all contributors. Thanks to all those who helped on the evening, and Matt and Jon for helping with the organising of the event and Dan for once again receiving, counting and dealing with the loot. A big thanks to Jim for all he did before and on the night.
February 20th, 2012 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments are closed
Colchester Armistice Day Parade
Colchester Colne Round Table Chairman Richard Nieuwenhuis represented 842 at the recent Armistice Day Parade in Colchester.
Richard Nieuwenhuis representing Colchester Colne Round Table at Colchester's Armistice Day Parade
November 24th, 2011 | Category: Chairman, Local news | Comments are closed
Area 33 Petanque Tournament
Richard, Matt, Dan and James battled against tough competition at Area 33 Petanque tournament on Thursday 28th July.
The team were highly competitive on the night until the turning point came when Matt announced "I think I'll play left handed" – at which point any hope of a victory was lost…
The tournament was held in a fantastic pub in Brentwood, and it was a great night with the opportunity to meet Tablers from throughout Essex.
CCRT will look to return in 2012 with a stronger, more focused team, but honestly this is a sport that anyone can have a go at so please get involved next time.
August 1st, 2011 | Category: Chairman, Sports, Table | Comments are closed
A message from the new chairman
A new year and a new set of challenges lie ahead, the biggest of which is to continue where John left off and try and build on an excellent last twelve months. May I at this point congratulate John for his achievements and hard work in what has been a truly unforgettable year, the highlights for me being the parachute jump, the reincarnation of the Colchester Half Marathon and a magnificent winter dinner and casino evening. You can be very proud of what you have achieved for Table and the huge sum of £25,000 raised for Headway Essex.
My chosen charity for my year is Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre (MSRC) an excellent and worth while cause and in keeping with our Table's tradition of supporting local charities. I would strongly recommend you visit MSRC's website at www.msrc.co.uk to see for yourself what great work they get involved in.
Charity fundraising continues to be at the forefront of our activities and already this year in May we have broken our previous record for money raised running the barbeque at the annual St Helena Hospice Fete. A big thank you to everyone involved with this event and in particular Giles Norrington for being the chief organiser. Other fundraising events this year will include building on the success of the Colchester Half Marathon, a pub quiz, the Schools Prom and a charity diner event.
And finally….thank you to my new Council for your commitment to these important roles and I look forward to working with you and to continue to adopt, adapt and improve.
Yours in Table
Chairman Colchester Colne Round Table 842
May 27th, 2011 | Category: Chairman | Comments are closed
Colchester Half Marathon – thanks
A full race report is certain to follow shortly, but as Chairman and while the day is still fresh in my head I want to offer my sincere thanks and congratulations to all the runners, organisers, spectators, helpers and sponsors who helped make The Colchester Half Marathon a great success today.
It was all voluntary and has involved a lot of hard work behind the scenes over the past few months. All profits are going to Headway Essex and I know they are over the moon at the amount we've raised for them this year.
Particular thanks go to Tabler James Lewis plus Louise Neville from Runners World for their dedication and efforts in pulling today's event together.
PS I spotted this great Colchester Half Marathon review. We really value your feedback, so if you want to log in and let us know if/how we can improve things for you in 2012 we'd be really grateful.
PPS In case you were wondering, that was me marshalling at the top of Hundred Lane with my kids!
March 27th, 2011 | Category: Chairman, Charity, Headway, Local news, Sports | Comments are closed
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