Barbara opened the meeting as our Chair; Allen was away for Easter, visiting family. She gave her usual updates on the upcoming outings, in particular the outing to Jodrell Bank on Thursday, 16th April, when Hull FC are playing at home. Once again, as has happened before, we will not be able to park our cars in the stadium car park for those travelling from Hull. Parking will be available at the Walton Street Car Park, as on a previous outing.
Barbara asked for the final names and payments for the End of Season Meal. She said there had been some confusion about the meal and went on to say that we are trialling Street Food for the first time. You will still be assigned a table with your friends, but this time you will get your food from a food station, and it will be ‘build a meal and build a cheesecake.’ Tony Bilton will be doing one of his special quizzes, but we are still looking for a guest speaker. She finished by saying that the room will open from 12 noon and the meal will start at 1 pm. The bar will also open from 12 noon.
There was a Home Instead help desk at the meeting, and members were able to take advantage of this before the meeting and during the refreshments break.
Richard Mathers from the Tigers Leisure shop brought sale merchandise for our members to purchase, which proved very popular.
Barbara introduced Barrie Kitching, a Senior Tiger, who is running his 13th London Marathon this year and is raising money for CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young) and East Yorkshire Cancer Research. He is in his 50th year of running marathons and has raised over £41,000 for charities. His fundraising has helped fund a screening project held at Driffield Cricket Ground. The first time it was held, it flagged up three children who needed treatment. Those members who donated to Barrie’s fundraising would be entered into a draw for a signed football donated by the football club. Brendon Smurthwaite very kindly brought the football to the meeting.
Later in the afternoon, Barrie thanked the members who had donated. He also thanked the club for donating the football as a prize. He will announce how much he has raised at our May meal and hopefully show us his medal. Good luck, Barrie.
Richard Beachell introduced Fraizer Campbell, our guest speaker for the afternoon. After the introduction, Fraizer told Richard that he had been to a meeting before. Richard responded by saying that he would not have been old enough to be a Senior Tiger the last time Fraizer was a guest speaker, much to our amusement.
Fraizer has been retired from football for four years now, but still plays in charity matches. He now lives football through his children; his son is in the Huddersfield Academy. He misses the special games but not the travelling around the country and missing out on special family events.
Fraizer has had some unbelievable times playing for Hull City, especially that memorable day at Wembley when we won promotion to the Premier League. That was his first spell playing for the Tigers.
He started playing football with friends, as most young boys do, and would play whenever he could. He was spotted by Manchester United and joined their academy as a ten-year-old, and said it was daunting being there as a youngster. His first team appearance for them was playing in Roy Keane’s Testimonial Match. It was while he was at Manchester United that he went out on loan to Royal Antwerp as an 18-year-old. They put him up in his own apartment and also gave him a car to use. This was at a time when he had only just learned to cook for himself. He said it was a great learning experience and a lot of fun too.
Fraizer’s first spell with Hull City was as a 20-year-old under manager Phil Brown. It was during this loan spell that we went to Wembley for the Championship Play-Off Final, and during the interview, we watched a video of clips from the match, in particular a clip showing Fraizer’s cross to Dean Windass, who scored the winning goal from that cross. The video also included an interview with both Fraizer and Deano. Fraizer said he still gets goosebumps when watching it and when he hears people talking about the match. The day was truly a family affair for him, and it felt like all of Hull was there. Fraizer still has his match shirt from that day, which was soaked in champagne and has not been washed. Fraizer is the same age now as Deano was in that memorable match, and said it was a pleasure to be part of the team with him.
During his playing career, he has had two ACL injuries but was fortunate to recover each time. He was lucky enough to be part of the England youth teams and to play alongside Joe Hart, Theo Walcott and Tom Huddlestone, to name just a few. He made one appearance for the England first team, but was very grateful to have the opportunity to be picked; very few players do. It was while he was playing for England that he missed the birth of his daughter, whom he gave his England cap to.
Fraizer joined the Tigers for a second time ten years after his loan spell from Manchester United and finished his playing career in 2022 at his hometown team of Huddersfield, coming a full circle from where it all started. When his contract with Huddersfield came to an end, the options to play abroad or down south came up, but he decided he wanted to be there for his family and so retired.
Pat thanked Fraizer for joining us and said how wonderful and emotional it was to watch the video of the Championship Play-Off Final at Wembley when we won promotion to the Premier League for the very first time. It brought back great memories for us.
To finish the afternoon, we held our raffle, which raised £317.00. One of the prizes was a large photo of Fraizer, which the football club had donated. Brendon Smuthwaite, who brought in the photo, got Fraizer to sign it.
Barbara closed the meeting and wished everyone a safe journey home.
Shirley Cormack.
Barbara opening the meeting Richard Mathers from Tiger Leisure
Barrie Kitching promoting his marathon running Fraizer Campbell being interviewed by Richard
Pat giving the vote of thanks to Frazier Campbell
