Another Joyously Wet Weekend

Prizes were handed out to numerous members of the Leeds Carnegie junior teams from the U16 Girls right up to the U18 Boys. I am led to believe that the Senior Carnegie teams have their own presentations elsewhere.

There were 5 categories across 5 age groups. The categories were MVP – Most Valuable Player, MIP – Most Improved Player, Hustle Award, Players Player of the year and Volunteer of the Year. Now I am delighted to list all the award winners among the 5 age groups.
 

U16 Girls
MVP – APRIL THOMAS, MIP – LUCY BENTALL, HUS – DAVINA COLLINS,
PP – SAFFRON JAMES, VOL – JANE BENTALL & NICKY POPLI

U13 Boys
MVP – SCOTT BINGHAM, MIP – DANIEL WEST, HUS – JAMES BENSON,
PP – MICAH SAVERY RICHARDS, VOL – ANNE DUNKERLEY

U14 Boys
MVP – JAMES BANTON, MIP – SAM FROSTER, HUS – CONNOR JONES BISHOP
PP – OLIVER ENGLAND, VOL – ANNE VAUTRY

U16 Boys
MVP – RYAN HURD, MIP – ABDUL-AZIZ ADEKOLA, HUS – MATTY BENTALL
PP – DANIEL EVANS, VOL – ALICIA PRICE

U18 Boys
MVP – RAFI SAIPE, MIP – TOMMY PRICE, HUS – CHARLIE HARVEY,
PP – WILL FREEMAN, VOL – LIZ PRICE

Two special Community awards were also presented to
CHRIS MANOJLOVIC and LATRELL DAVIS

The Carnegie Coach of the Year was

PAUL HARTLEY

 
I would like to say congratulations to all of the award winners and all of the other people who received awards for all the hard work that they do for the Leeds Carnegie Club. I would also like to say that I had a most wonderful surprise myself as Head Coach Matt Newby made three special Coaches Awards to people who have assisted the organisation above and beyond the call of duty.

I was astounded and delighted when he called me out to receive the third of those awards. The whole event was wonderful and thank you if you came and helped make this another wonderful event.

And so it is 4:15 on Sunday morning and the alarm clock goes off. It is time to head out for Sunday Breakfast at BBC Radio Manchester and I have to admit that I am a bit nervous.

Why are you nervous? I hear you ask…well today the Olympic Flame is coming to Media City in Salford and Sunday Breakfast is doing an outside broadcast from the piazza at Media City. Now I have done dozens of OBs in the past but this was going to be something special as we had never done an OB from outside the building and one which was going to start at 5:45. Would anybody be there to see the torch on its way or would we be out there on our own.

As I arrived at the traffic lights to turn into Media City I saw the BBC Bus from which we would be broadcasting and as I arrived at the doors to the BBC building there were already people gathering for the event.

Well at 5:45, 15 minutes early we took control and began the programme and I have to say what a wonderful programme it was. We spoke to numerous people including Guides, Scouts and Brownees who had been sleeping out at the Imperial War Museum in preparation for this event. We spoke to mums who had gotten up even earlier that I had to get their spot to ensure they would get a good look at the Olympic Flame.

I have seen literally hours of Olympic Torch Relay broadcasts and have had the great pleasure of holding one of the torches at an Awards event in Sefton.

Well the Torch came and went and despite the rain it was a truly wonderful event. The Sunday Breakfast team had a wonderful time and congratulations to Producer Rebecca Kelly who brought her wellies. She was the only one of the team who didn’t have soggy feet when we went back into the BBC building.

At 7:00 o’clock it was back into the studio for the rest of a special Sunday Breakfast programme which would have a sporting feel. My first guest was my good friend Dianne Modahl who had carried the torch 24 hours earlier in Preston and she was able to tell us all about that. She spoke about her joy that the Olympics were in London and we reminisced about the Commonwealth Games in Manchester 10 years ago.

My second guest was Rev John Boyers who is the Chaplain to Manchester United Football Club and is also part of the team looking after the Chaplaincy at the London 2012. It was a joy to interview him again and to hear some of the many stories of Chaplaincy all over the world. He was truly inspirational.

Through out the whole programme we had reports from our two reporters Emma Goswell and Matt Trewern who were able to bring us on the spot reports as the Torch parade made its way through Moss Side, Down the Curry Mile, along Dickenson Rd, Stockport Rd, to Levenshulme, into Stockport and onwards. Interspersed with this was the most wonderful Gospel and Inspirational music that I could find.

All’n all this was another wonderful event for me and one I am sure I will never forget.

When I arrived home there was an e-mail from my boss, Station Editor Kate Squire. It read “Super OB Mike, Really conveyed the energy and enthusiasm of the event…”

Now that is what I am talking about!