53rd National Dinner
02/12/09
A good time was had by all.
Our 53rd. National Annual Dinner was a thoroughgoing success.
There was a lot of it and so the report is in pdf format.
Persevere! There are some good pictures thanks to Simply Photography.
Gordon Hawkins
8/9/09
The news that Gordon has gone will sadden the many people who were privileged to earn his friendship during his 50 years in plant and plant hire and 30 years as a stalwart of Midlands Branch.
However, the manner of his leaving can be envied by those of us with silver hair, (if we have any!). Gordon was attending a Royal Navy Reunion when he suffered a heart attack and although the medics were there in minutes he had gone.
This is the Gordon that I’ll remember – at ease, having fun for the Lighthouse Club and hamming it up like nobody’s business.
Gordon. Chairman of Midlands Branch 1998
Gordon Hawkins Obituary
‘Fine’ Summer Ball
02/07/09
Our mid–summer ball attracts 700
Our mid summer ball is a big event for the Club and in spite of the current climate we managed to bring over 700 construction people into the spacious City grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company. There they all enjoyed a good time and a fine mid summer evening. As usual the fairground with its traditional gallopers and dodgems proved popular, as did the dance floor which was busy until past midnight.
First off was A-Plant’s percussion band, which gave us some high spirited, (and recognisable!) tunes from an assortment of battered artifacts.
Strike up the band! Our four young tuneful chaps hard at it.
Whilst we were all at table, entertainment came first from Lily and Sarah, two young lady gymnasts/acrobats, the ‘Cirque Bijou’, who swirled and whirled through, on, and around a six foot hoop and each other.
Lily and Sarah – ‘Cirque Bijou’ |
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‘Siren’s’ Electric Strings certainly swung |
Later came a jazz string quartet. The four young ladies pictured above certainly rocked those strings to great acclamation!
The fund raising came with the Grand Draw. Below is Marian Webb, (who can justly claim to being the key to the evening’s success), together with our popular MC Brian Greenan, pulling out a winning ticket. One winner this time was Hewden’s Brian Jones, a stalwart supporter of our Club and Fund, who was on one of the two tables gathered together by the CPA. They were an orderly crowd of Plant People, well they had the ladies to ensure best behavior!
Familiar faces, Marian Webb making
the draw with our M.C. Brian Greenan |
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Our auctioneer Gregor Leslie upping the ante! |
On the right our auctioneer in full Clan dress, who made sure that every possible bawbee was contributed by our generous crowd.
And then on to the fun. A great many construction people enjoyed a splendid night out.
Our ‘5 –a – side’ Competition
25/06/09
Holloways & GM Developments dominate 5 – a – side.
Captain of Holloways Captain receives the Cup |
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The Cup winning team, Holloways Plant and Tool Hire |
Thirty six teams lined up at Wimbledon Goals Centre on Sunday 31st May for the 8th staging of our Construction Charity 5s. As with all our events this year, numbers were down on 2008, but organiser Peter Wedderburn of KBC Communications, by dint of cajole and persuasion, mustered a very satisfactory turn out. Play took place in a Mediterranean heat wave as teams from all aspects of the Construction and Property industries battled it out to take home the Cup.
There is an established league type formula which establishes whether teams progress into the Cup or Plate competitions, at the end of the league matches both Holloway teams, Hill Partnerships, Ellmer Construction, Volker Fitzpatrick, Plastering Contractors Stanmore and Rainbow Design were Cup contenders. In the hard fought tussle that followed Holloway’s Plant & Tool Hire team went on to win the competition for the second year in succession, this time beating sister company Holloways Contract Services Ltd. Their winning margin this year was two goals out of the six scored in an exciting final. Man of the match was Lee Humphrey.
Holloways Contract Services who yielded to Plant and Tool Hire |
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The Plate winning team in an all GM Developments Final. |
The Plate competition also saw one company dominate, both of the GM Developments teams won through to the Final. It was GM Development’s number two team that took the trophy with a five -nil final score.
At the end of a most enjoyable day’s sport it was Tony Keel, Director of Hays Construction & Property, who presented the trophies. Hays Construction & Property, along with Contract Journal and Skanska, are sponsors of this popular event, and our thanks are due to them for being directly responsible for the raising of over £6000 for our Benevolent Fund. Thanks too, to Peter Wedderburn and his team at KBC, for making the day another Lighthouse Club success
Golfing Society 2009 Pro-Am
10/06/09
The Society held its 9th Pro-Am on June 4th at Tandridge Golf Club, Oxted, Surrey.
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Tandridge – a splendid course in wonderful countryside. |
The Professional Golfers Association - Southern Region provided the Professionals and in all 23 teams competed made up from Members, Guests and Pros.
Our last year’s report had Golf Supremo Keith Chaundy worried in the wet and stormy run up to the event. The day was, of course, and as usual, brilliant. This year we enjoyed another perfect golfing day, (for our Pro-Am it always is) with the foul weather occupying the days since.
So: a glorious June day found Tandridge looking a picture and in fantastic condition, which made for excellent golf and good, well earned, scores. Well earned because Tandridge, which features among the top 100 courses in England, is a challenge – only four of our professionals broke par.
Pro-Am ’09 winner Andrew Raitt with our Keith Chaundy. Keith’s flamboyant Lighthouse tie is a present from Kuala Lumpur Branch where our members are somewhat more outgoing. |
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The Bovis Lend Lease winners. |
Our “Pro-Am” winners this year were a team from Bovis Lend Lease with a Team score of 12 under par, second were Kier Group on 8 under par and third were last year’s winners Orbital Equipment with a 6 under par score.
We had a splendid supper to follow proceedings, a meal which lived up to the reputation for quality enjoyed by Tandridge’s kitchen, and the evening’s socialising rounded off another great Lighthouse Club event.
Our grateful thanks to our Sponsors: Bam Construction UK,Benchmark Scaffolding Ltd, Bovis Lend Lease, Charles Wilson Engineers Ltd, ClancyDocwra, Harry Neal Ltd, Hays PLC, Hill International, Kier Group Plc, Laing O’Rourke Plc,PHE Plant Hire Executive Magazines, C J Pryor (Plant) Ltd, Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd, Skanska Construction UK,Volvo Construction Equipment Ltd and Walton Heath Developments.
In all over £5000 was raised for the Lighthouse Club Benevolent Fund, bringing the total raised by the events we have run to £85000.
We return next year to Tandridge on the Thursday the 3rd June 2010.
The Autumn Meeting is once again at The Berkshire Golf Club on Thursday the 17th September 2009. Golfers should take the opportunity to visit what Sir Michael Bonallack calls “this marvelous course”.
Keith Chaundy
‘Hays Construction 11s’ Millwall Finals.
10/06/09
The winning Hays squad who, with their victory over DTZ, continued their run of successes.
At the begining of April the ‘Hays Construction 11s’ had 16 teams from London’s property companies lined up to battle it out to secure a place in the competition final and, on the way, raise money for our Benevolent Fund.
Qualifying games were played at Gunnersbury Park and from these four teams came through to the finals at Millwall’s Den held on Thursday 21 May. Hays and DTZ were playing for the cup and the losers in the semi-finals, Drivers Jonas and GVA Grimley, played for the plate. In that match, a draw at full time, GVA emerged as winners following sudden death penalties.
In the cup final, DTZ put up strong competition against the current cup holders, Hays, but were knocked back when Hays’ Captain, Scott Dance shot past the goalie for a 1-0 lead after eight minutes. By end of half time, DTZ were three goals down. In the second half DTZ never once looked like giving in, but Scott Dance scored a hat trick goal ten minutes from time, and was, unsurprisingly, named Man of the Match. Hays took home the glory for the fifth time since the event started in 2005.
Andrew Bredin, Managing Director of Hays Construction & Property, presenting the cup to the Hays team said “We were pleased to be able to support the Lighthouse Club Charity, alongside other construction businesses. It is excellent to get everyone on the pitch for a good cause – we just need someone to beat us, now!”
Big Man – Big Rig
2/03/09
A slimming down Justin (by nearly 5 stones so far)
with his 60 tonne Komatsu (pic courtesy PHE Plant Hire Executive)
The Flora London Marathon is not that far away, as this is written the web site countdown reads 1 month 13 days 21 hours 7 minutes.
This is the latest from Justin Ffrench who was photographed yesterday by Nick Johnson of PHE Magazine.
Nick reports:
As well as raising money through the run, Justin is also planning to donate a sum of money from each new excavator hire gained between April and June. Naturally the amount will vary according to the size of machine. The 60 tonne Komatsu pictured above is the biggest rig in Justin’s fleet, and, by the looks of things, its in the yard ready,waiting, and eager to go out!
Plant Hire Executive will be giving Justin’s efforts on behalf of the Lighthouse Club Benevolent Fund a good plug
The Flora London Marathon
03/03/09
It’s cruel hard work!
The Flora London Marathon is not that far away, as this is written the web site countdown reads 1 month 22 days 15 hours 15 minutes. The Lighthouse Club has a big interest in this spectacular event: As a registered charity our Benevolent Fund has 5 Gold Places on offer every year. Two of our runners are in touch – Kevin Minton of the Contractors Plant –Hire Association and Justin Ffrench who owns J. Ffrench Plant Hire; both say they are making good progress.
Their progress is Here (PDF)
Lighthouse Run 2008 Review
19/02/09
Thanks to contributions from a few of those who took part in this daunting challenge this review looks at people places and cars from John ‘o Groats to Land’s End as they were last October.
In spite of the ‘daunting challenge or maybe because of it, everyone had a great time.
Here
Jaguar Enthusiast & LHR
29/01/09
Jaguar Enthusiast Magazine – February 09 Edition – has given a full page to the story of the Speedy Hire Mike McGrath – Alex Trigg team’s unbelievable good fortune when their E Type’s lights failed in the wilds north of Fort William.
Some errors did occur in translation, and I had to click on my enlarge button to bring the text into focus, but here it is:- pdf Here
‘Mini World’ stars L H Run
20/01/09
Long standing Club member (and a past Branch Chairman, twice) George Wright, the senior member of our Lighthouse Run ‘Wrightfull Mini Team’ has been spreading the Lighthouse word via the two magazines dedicated to these classic cars.
Now all those crazy Mini aficionados will be aware of our Club. However we shouldn’t count on many new members – keeping an old Mini on the road and up to the mark leaves little time for other hobbies says George!
The two examples of George’s handiwork are Here and Here
8/12/08
This ‘doctored’ picture shows our nine ‘runners’, here lined up in the gloom of a John o’ Groats October morn. 1170 miles to go, 25 to 30 hours of tough driving through the most dramatic landscapes in Britain.
Fortunately for our ‘runners’, by the morning of departure the previous day’s 80m.p.h. winds had abated to 50 m.p.h. A mere breeze for Britain’s northernmost point. With that ‘breeze’ came variety – rain, sleet and snow. As for the route, it was anything but ‘point to point’. From J o' G over the top of Scotland, through the breathtaking Highlands, down the west coast passing Lochs Ness and Lomand. Then down to the Muir of Ord, through Glen Coe, past Penrith and Carlisle to Bowness on Lake Windemere and the Hydro Hotel, the overnight stop. The Hydro is a comfortable berth, and the food was excellent, both much needed after a tough day’s driving. Not surprisingly, with the knowledge of the day yet to come the atmosphere was subdued and most of our runners turned in soon after dinner.
These disinterested observers deserved to be given a wide berth!
On the morning of day two another early start. The first leg was negotiating a flooded Lake district before the teams picked up the M6 to by-pass Manchester then they turned westward towards Chester. From Chester, as the route wound through Wales, the weather faired up. There were a few showers over the Brecon Beacons and once back into England and Gloucester and Bath there were glimpses of sunshine! The Somerset levels came next and then it was Devon, the final checkpoint, at the Rose & Crown East Lyng, the A30, Cornwall and the road to the Land’s End hotel. There, Lighthouse people were the sole occupants and the atmosphere was, to quote George Wright, superb.
Our Tony Green was there to represent the Club and to award the trophies. Woodbutcher and Leaky from Ipswich, who competed in 2006 were the overall winners, whilst the Prix de la Concourse, for the best turned out car (voted for by the runners themselves), was the (much tweaked) 1988 Austin-Rover Mini Mayfair of the Wrightful team of George and James Wright.
Tony Green writes: “Our hosts served a superb meal and afterwards the goodwill and camaraderie generated by the event illustrates what the Lighthouse Club is all about. The evening spent with these guys, listening to their stories and their good natured banter. is something I shall treasure for many months to come The next morning, after a Cornish breakfast, we had a photo call and dispersed back to our homes. All in all another great LHC event.”
The best turned out car, the Wrightful team’s Mini Mayfair.
Note from web editor. If I get the words and pictures I’m hoping that a much more complete picture will soon be available here in pdf format.
On behalf of the Lighthouse Club our organiser Steve Grant tenders sincere thanks to all who took part.
And to our sponsors: Enersol corp. Speedy Hire. The Hydro Hotel for their wonderful hospitality. To Construction News and to Plant Hire Executive for the pre and post event publicity and advertising.
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