Castle Park

For three years running now the excellent ladies night, co-ordinated by Chris Briggs has been one of the events of the year at Castle Park. From amazing entertainment, to great food and players serving as waiters the evenings have been enjoyed by the ladies at Castle Park and have grown stronger year on year.

These evenings aren’t just about fun, they are about helping all sections of the club and once again the ladies night event from last season has helped out the first team as well as amateur sections at Castle Park.

One question we wanted to answer is “WHERE DOES THE MONEY RAISED GO?” After a chat with Chris Briggs, I think you will be suitable impressed at the answer.

The ladies always sponsor a player as a tradition. In the 2007/08 season the ladies decided to sponsor backs coach and ex London Irish legend Justin Bishop as their player of choice. Justin even attended the event that year as a waiter to repay the support which went down very well.

2008/09 kicked off and promising young player George Hughes received the support of the ladies night sponsorship. George didn’t have the greatest of season and eventually moved on to play for an Australian club before the end of that very same season. He expressed his gratitude to the ladies for the sponsorship before he left.

This year, for the 09/10 Championship season the ladies have decided to award their sponsorship to new hooker Steven Lawrie. Lawrie commented that to arrive and the club and get a shirt sponsor within days made him feel more welcome than any other club he has been at and will look forward to attending the event himself to repay the kindness.

This is not all of the support the ladies night event gives the club. During the 2000/09 season not only did the event pay for sponsorship given to help out the Demons, Mini, Junior, Phoenix, Dragons and Colts sections but a donation was also made towards the DIRECT charity running costs. If this did not seem enough, the people behind this event also went on to pay for the name plates on the framed shirts and photo’s in the Lansdowne Suite.

So far this season the Ladies night event has put even more support into the operations in general at Castle Park.

Donations have already been made to the girls under 15 and boys under 8 teams. When Phoenix player Ed Crowe did his charity ski race to the North Pole ladies night was in support. Another donation has already been made to DIRECT, ladies polo’s purchased for the Demons and a donation went toward the display of memorabilia in the Lansdowne Suite.

Most recently, a massive donation of £700 went to support the introduction of the scanners and software that will help power the new ticketing system.

So we would like to give a big thank you to Chris Briggs, and the ladies who attend the big night out from all sections of the club. The support from this evening benefits so many people we wanted to let everyone know just how much good this fantastic evening does.

If you are interested in attending the next Ladies Knight event on Friday the 26th February 2010 you can details from the Knights website on www.drfc.co.uk