The End of Season Dinner is back, so dust off your posh frocks and dickie-bows and put Saturday the 14th May in your diary, for the night of the year… or in this case, the night of the last three years.
The event will take place at Venue 16 in Ipswich, formerly Greshams. Doors will open at 4pm, with the speeches starting at 5pm.
It was May 2019 the last time the whole club got together, dressed up and celebrated our achievements – to put that into perspective, current senior players such Ben Michael’s and Hannah Gray were just thirteen years old. The women’s team had just finished their first season back in WNBL Division One, Coach Manning’s u14’s had just made the national final and the blue wig’s hadn’t happened yet….. Since then, COVID-19 has cut one season short and prevented a second season from even happening for all of our teams except for our senior women… Of course, there has been massive success during that period, that we
haven’t been able to celebrate as a #family with the u18 women winning the National Cup in 2020, and the Senior Women completing a historic league and playoff double, essentially ‘behind closed doors’ in 2021. The committee and coaching staff has seen a lot of changes and we have said goodbye to a generation of players, the likes of which we may never see again – time flies, but as we slowly get back to normal, what better way to remind everyone how great Ipswich Basketball is than announcing the 2022 End of Season Dinner.
For those new to the event, it is a formal evening (technically it starts in the afternoon), that includes a three-course meal, speeches, video presentations and a chance to honour the coaching staff and volunteers who make the club so special. Our End of Season Dinner is legendary – literally the night of the year. If you’ve not been before, trust us…. You won’t want to miss out… While we can’t ‘force’ people to attend, traditionally everyone in the club joins us – and that includes players AND parents! In 2019, we had 280 people in attendance!
Each team votes for their Most Valuable Player, Most Improved Player and the Coach gives out their ‘Coaches Player of the Year’. There is also the ‘Kathryn James Award’ given to a female club member who embodies the club’s family spirit, and the ‘Tomcat of the Year’ goes to the male equivalent while The Club Person of the Year Award, now renamed the ‘Bernard Ball Award’ after the clubs founder member, goes to a volunteer who has gone above and beyond during this season.
Expect to see some club legends returning for the evening, perhaps the best advert for not only our amazing club – but what a great night it always is.
To view the menu and book your tickets please follow this link. Tickets are £40 per head until the 1st April, at which time the price will go up to £45 per head. The cut-off date for tickets is the 13th April, to allow the venue a month to prepare of the evening. We appreciate it’s not cheap – which is why we are advertising so early.
To get a taste of some video’s from previous year please follow the below links:
2017/2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAdBknO2fZ0
