Friday the 26th January saw the first of what will now become an annual event on the club social calendar. The Antlers City lunch was held at Brasserie Blanc on London’s Southbank and what a cracking way to spend a midwinter afternoon it was.

Although The City Lunch was a whole club event, it was specifically targeted at those members working in central London, who may also wish to bring along their friends and colleagues who had maybe never ventured west to our picturesque home in Bushy Park, or experienced a famed Antlers social event before. It was also unashamedly an opportunity to raise some much-needed funds for the club. It couldn’t have gone much better, thanks to the organisation of Rob ALLEN and the team from SNAP Events and not forgetting all the guests who turned up and got involved. There certainly weren’t many people returning to work afterwards I can assure you. The pre lunch drinks allowed the 135 guests to mingle and also gave a perfect opportunity to meet our MC and Auctioneer John INVERDALE and our guest of honour and after dinner speaker Simon SHAW.

After the three-course lunch John INVERDALE (now proudly wearing his newly acquired Anters club tie) took to the floor and rattled through a hilarious game of heads & tails, a raffle and then the auction. There were some cracking prizes, which had been generously provided by club members and club sponsors. These included a red letter day of a flight over London from Biggin Hill and lunch at the Imperial war museum at RAF Duxford in Cambridgeshire, a villa holiday in the Greek Islands, Rugby tickets, a round of golf with International referee JP Doyle, A signed Harlequins 150th Anniversary shirt and loads more. Then the new comedy double act of Shawsey & Inverdale perched on their stools kept everyone happily entertained for well over an hour. SHAWSEY recounting tall tales from his playing days with England, The British Lions, Toulon and Wasps and the consummate TV presenter INVERDALE chipping in with his own stories and asking a few 6 Nations themed questions too, All brilliant stuff. What happened after that is anyone’s guess, I for one have very little recollection of my journey home.

Photos from the event can be found here

Now that the dust has settled, the hangovers gone and the toting up complete, I can tell you that the event raised a magnificent £13,700 for the club. This will go towards a number projects, including; the promoting and growing of our junior girls rugby section, which includes some recruitment visits and taster sessions at local schools; a summer re-seeding and maintenance programme of our two pitches; The construction of a storage and groundsmans building behind the club (replacing the shipping containers); and the erecting of new fencing around the old car park (now a nature reserve).

The day was a roaring success and we’ve received plenty of positive feedback, so much so that we’ve already confirmed that we will be holding the next Antlers City Lunch in January 2019. For this one it would be great to see a few more people from our various sections there and also a table or two of Antlers ladies, who I’m sure could show the men how to lunch in style.

See you all at the next Antlers City Lunch in January 2019

Gareth CROSS

Thankyou To our event organisers; Rob ALLEN & SNAP SPONSORSHIP & EVENTS

And our generous event sponsors & auction lot suppliers including;
Hi Spirits spirit distributors

Fuller’s Brewery

TRO marketing

The Fulwell Golf Club

Haven on Earth holiday villas.

And not forgetting our special guest Simon SHAW and our MC, Auctioneer, stand-up, interviewer and general good egg John INVERDALE