GORILLA AWARDS and AGM 2025
On Friday over 30 of the troop braved the storm to attend the AGM and awards night.
AGM
Lindsey Trivett did an amazing job taking us all through the AGM , with a financial report from Eugene Vichare, and survey update from Rob Garratt. Bruno did a review of the year. Welcome to Sarah Sprittles and Dana Chirila who join the committee as Inclusion and Ethics officers. Your full committee , as voted in on Friday is:
Chair : Bruno
Vice: Rob Garratt
Secretary : Lindsey Trivett
Vice: Rob Anderson
Finance; Eugene Vichare
Vice: Richard Bates
General: Stuart John Bulloch
General; David Morton
Inclusion/Ethics: Sarah Sprittles an Dana Chirila
AGM minutes will be posted onto the club website in the next couple of weeks.
AWARDS
Bruno did a "powerpoint" presentation for the awards, using the latest high tech , super computer - Flipchart.
Your award winners for 2025 were:
RIDERS RIDER ; Iain Davie . Unfortunately Iain couldn't make it , as he was flying to Hong Kong, though he did send in a beautiful video message.
ROOKIE ( or Rocky) OF THE YEAR ; Joe Walker
CLUB ACHIEVEMENT ; Jack Morrie Evans and Scott Hamblett for their Hill Climbing achievements this season, and both being in the top 83 climbers in the country.
SHEPHERD PRIZE ; David Morton for leading the most rides this year - 37!
Also , as a thank you to all the amazing volunteer ride leaders, they were presented with a Top Gorilla T-shirt ( designed by Neil Cocklin).
MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT ; Neil Hutchins - for pooing in a field on the Grand Day Out. To be fair, he took his prize - The Purple Helmet - very well.
EPIC RIDE ; there really was no contest for this prize, this year, as John Pears had ridden the 4800km Trans Continental Race. A truly mindblowing achievement. And his prize - an empty can of baked beans... but no ordinary can, this had a bespoke label for rider No. 57 ( designed by Bruno and Neil Cocklin ). John couldn't be with us, but sent in a lovely acceptance message.
SPIRIT OF GORILLA ; Neil Cocklin for all his work behind the scenes, sorting the website, helping putting on events, his iconic images, designing t-shirts and awards, and being a volunteer ride leader. Legend.
And that's it for another year. A big thank you to all those who turned out to celebrate the clubs great and the good. Hopefully you had a fun time.
Our next club event is the Christmas Social on Friday 5th December from 6.30pm at
Schooners on York Rd. Dress code is Christmas jumpers or sparkles ( though neither are obligatory of course).
See you there.
Bruno