Kelburne Hockey Club - 10 in a Row Dinner

22^nd November

St Mirren Park

Kelburne Hockey club held a dinner at St Mirren Park Football stadium on the 22^nd November to celebrate the recent success at the club. The 1^st XI Men have won the National League Division 1 title for the last 10 years in a row and the 2^nd XI Men have won the Regional Division 1 League 11 times out of the last 12 years.

The evening was started off with some words from the club president and ex manager of the 1st XI, Harry Coles.

?It is always a special occasion for any club to win their national championship, so for this club to achieve 10 consecutive national championship victories will surely go down as one of the truly great achievements in the history of Scottish Hockey.

On a personal note, it has been a great privilege and pleasure to a small part of this fabulous era of success, as both 1^st team manager and president. I am sure that as a club we can go on to achieve even further success at all levels of the game in the years to come.?

The success is based on an excellent youth policy producing a large number of players who have went onto represent Scotland and Great Britain. These principles of producing our youth is something we are constantly looking to develop to keep Kelburne as one the top clubs in Paisley and Scotland.

The dinner ran smoothly with a number of fantastic speakers and stories being shared throughout the evening. The first of the main speakers John McKelvie was on top form, keeping everybody entertained. John also read out a congratulations card sent kindly by Scottish Hockey. 1st XI captain Jonathan Christie shared a number of stories from the last 10 years, many including good memories of past celebrations and mishaps. Club stalwart Stuart McAlphine reminisced about the Kelburne teams of the 90's. They had great success themselves and without that foundation this recent team would definitely not be in the position that they are in now. Sandy Strang was the second main speaker up and didn't disappoint. The evening was finished off by some kind words from Mark Fulton.

There was special recognition for 4 members of the 1st XI squad who have been ever present over the last 10 year. Mark Fulton, Chris Nelson, Michael Christie and Jonathan Christie have been the corner stones of the succeeding in winning the 10 in a row. A true inspiration to any younger player.

The club was very happy to welcome a number of our current and past sponsors. Without their support the club would not be in the position that it's in at this time. A number of our sponsors very generously donated prizes for the raffle and auction. Special thanks to Thomsons Cycles, Pro-Life Fitness Centre, Gilmour Sports and Glynhill Hotel. Bromac Ltd the new 1st XI sponsor continued their superb support during the evening, being very active during the auction. The miniatures for each place setting were kindly donated by new Kelburne sponsor Valt Vodka.

A number of one of a kind auction prizes were up for grabs during the night. Including a signed Team Scotland Mens Hockey strip from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow (as seen on the left) and a Kelburne strip, signed by a number of the players involved over the last ten years.

The night would not have happened without the hard work of a number of members. Mainly Douglas McEwan, Mark Fulton, Iain Scholefield and Cathrine McLauchlan. Assisted by Michael Bremner who designed the programme, Lesley Scholefield for doing the flowers and Barrie Scholefield who was the official photographer for the evening.

Lastly Kelburne Hockey Club would like to thank everybody who attended and made it an unforgeable event in Kelburne's history.

The rest of the photos can be seen here - Picasa - 10 in a Row Dinner