We should really have given Steve Watts an award for getting what looked like it was going to be a 4 hour captain's speech in to 15 minutes. Decent effort.

- Paul Johnson

Time to dish out the gongs
Autumn means the end of the playing season. But it also means the start of the annual round of dinners and presentations to remember (and recognise) those who made hay when the sun shone.

Twickenham CC's annual dinner took place on Saturday 7 October at the Twickenham Rowing Club on Eel Pie Island. Chairman Jon Varney acted as MC, whilst Nigel Gordon and Eugene Berger fell in to the roles of chief organisers. The Sandhu clan cooked a truly excellent curry feast whilst Paul Johnson did what he does so well - preside over everything and act as principle problem-solver. Thanks to one and all for the efforts.

Award-Winners
Each of the TCC captains awarded a player of the season award, and, given how successful the club was in 2017, the competition for silverware was fierce. Well done to Rhys Davies (1sts), Nakul Vishvanath (2nds), Steve Cowley (3rds), Mehran Iqbal (4ths), Andy Donelan (5ths) and Sinead Gooden (Ladies XI) for getting the call.

The players themselves also voted on their very own 'players' player'; given how important it is to be valued by your team mates, a much coveted award indeed. The following took the honours there; Gurjit Sandhu (1sts), Tom Field (2nds), Anu Agarwal (3rds), Uzzi Khan (4ths), Paddy Turish (5ths) and Charlotte Gallagher (Ladies).

Arguably the toughest category of them all was nonetheless performance of the year. The winners there were Parminder Singh (1sts), Simon Dunning (2nds), Robbie Bosier (3rds), Sarwant Singh (4ths), Zafar Ali (5ths), Hazel Lovegrove (Ladies).

Young Player of the Year and Club Men of the Year
Finally, every year there are two further awards. The first is for the Young Player of the Year and the winner of that accolade in 2017 was Ozzie Qavi. Well done Ozzie, much deserved.

The final award went to the club member who has made the most outstanding contribution to the club in 2017. This year two people stood out as going well beyond the call of duty and so Paul Johnson wisely opted to give the award to both Eugene Berger and Nigel Gordon. Whether Nigel's was for his herculean efforts as bar manager or opting to stand down and score at Ruhrdean Hill when the Vets needed a bit of squad rotation is unclear. No matter, an award well deserved.