On Saturday 20 March the RRC hall was full of budding trivia nuts all wanting to take out the brainiest rower award and look after ‘Wiki the Wombat’ (mascot) until the next battle of the brains in 2011. With 69 people jostling for position and Justin Thomas as Quiz Master, it was going to be a tough evening.
The quiz night, also known as the ‘fleet fundraiser’, was the first of the 2010 fundraising initiatives for RRC and as the title would suggest was all about raising money to help fund equipment purchases. Last year the club was able to buy a new Tub Four with the money raised through the quiz night and plenty of chocolates sales. This was a welcome addition to the fleet and used across all squads and in particular the development squad, who have already picked up some wins and close seconds in it.
The small organising committee, comprising Justin Thomas and Emma Catford, set their ‘stretch target’, for both participants and money raised, only to be blown away on both counts on the night. A total of $5,499 was raised through a combination of entry fees, auction items and a few games – this is almost $2000 more than what we achieved in 2009. A pretty staggering amount for what was also a fun social evening too.
Justin prepared 5 rounds of questions, testing both right and left brain and well as general capacity for retaining info from trashy magazines; and with only one yellow card issued for the night he had the crowd well under control. The wooden spoon after a few attempts to award it to other teams was won by Oarstentatious who also won best decorated table – by a mile.
Although they lucked out on the trivia questions their physical prowess didn’t let them down with both winners of the physical challenge coming from that table. David Hepworth beat his younger competitors by pumping out 45 push-ups and Deb (who also won last year) held a brace position for 4.17mins, knocking out 8 other women to take the honours’. The prize for best team name went to the ‘Unlikely Suspects’, however the full glory all went to Sunglasses@Night who snuck into 1st place, by half a point, ahead of the ‘Dennis has bony girl arms’ team.
Special thanks goes to all those that donated items for the auction, in particular Sally Allen for putting up the use of her Eco-Friendly Lodge in Gippsland which went for $900; and ‘Chef’ Shirley who offered her services to cook a spectacular meal for 10 people – this fetched $500.
Big cheer also for Mieke for doing much of the behind the scenes work both before and on the day, Justin for all the questions and hosting the evening, Jim for taking the place as Auctioneer, Rachael and Sally for marking the quiz, Yarra Yarra for lending us the tables and to all those that moved them up and down boathouse drive.
So I hear you saying what’s next? Similar to last year the club is also running a Chocolate Drive which is being coordinated by Susie, Karen, Rosie and Rochelle. Order forms can be picked up at the club and need to be completed and returned by next Wednesday – 24 March. The chocolates will arrive the following week and can be picked up from the club.
The next RRC social event and celebration of achievements will be in June for the end of season presentation night. More details regarding the event, including cost and venue, will follow shortly.
Well done tigers