This meeting gave us the opportunity to celebrate the team’s promotion back to the Premier League. With so many distractions it was a great credit to Steve Bruce and team to make the return at the first attempt. The football club very kindly offered us a free buffet luncheon and with 150+ members present it seemed a very well received gesture. As we gathered there was an edited highlights of our promotion day at Wembley being screened and reminding us all of that wonderful day.
Many members, on arrival, joined the queue to pay their subs for the new season and they were joined by 13 new members. All most encouraging. Once the meeting began there was a succession of enthusiastic applause, first in celebration of the Tigers and then for the letter of appreciation that was sent from the Senior Tigers to Steve Bruce. A final round of applause was offered to the Events Management Team who had not only provided us with a superb buffet but had previously scooped two great accolades from the previous season. They won the Matchday Hospitality Trophy for medium sized stadiums and then the overall Trophy for Matchday Hospitality. A fantastic achievement.
Our Chair, David Jackson, welcome new member, Charles Lewis, to the meeting. Charles had previously visited as a representative of the Executive Club and we had invited him to receive a cheque for £500 which they will use to support some of the young hopefuls at the Tiger’s Academy who struggle to find the basic equipment, eg boots, that will help them towards a career in our sport.
Members were encouraged to keep looking up the new website (www.seniortigers.org.uk) and send in their contributions – like memories from the past years. Now that we are on world wide web people will find out about us, even so our Chair was surprised to get a request from a young boy in Brazil who was hoping we could arrange for him to have trials with Hull City!! The request was passed over to Tony Pennock at the Academy!
There was an appeal from the Chair for someone to take responsibility to run and coordinate the proposed Walking Football team and a second request for someone with the experience of making fundraising bids and filling in those forms that come with it!
So with introductions over we were now ready to welcome our very special guest of the day – none other than former Tiger’s Legend, Dennis Booth. Dennis was quizzed on his start in football, playing kids football at Stanley Common in Derbyshire before being offered an Apprenticeship with Charlton Athletic. Dennis talked about the influence on his development he received from Bob Stokoe. He looked back over his years at Charlton, Blackpool, Southend, Lincoln City and Watford before arriving at the Tigers in 1980. He played with the club for 5 seasons before moving over to coaching. Dennis will long be remembered at this club and for making Hull is home in retirement. He was always more than a player and this came through as he spoke. He had wit and a demon spirit that always made him memorable company. Our afternoon with Dennis was a wonderful time. (JAB)
