Melinda Phillips is a keen and active member of the DDCWWFCSC, and at the Dinner back in January outbid the competition to win a day at the Wolves training ground for two people. Fortunately her brother Roger offered to pay half of the amount pledged so that he could go along too.

All the money raised went to Cancer Research, please see our news section for the total amounts raised, both this year and in total.

Thanks go to Wolves in the form of John Gough and Richard Skirrow for making this happen and also to all the people at the training ground on the day for making it such a memorable experience for Melinda and Roger.

Here is Melinda’s acount of the day and a few photos too……..

As most people know the right time to hold a charity auction is fairly late into the evening’s proceeding’s, which is exactly what happened at the DDCWWFCSCADD held in Daventry on the 16^th January, the auction being held near mid-night. The bid was for a day for two at the Compton training ground to see the first team and academy players on the pitch, to meet with Richard Skirrow, the club secretary and Mick McCarthy. The timing of the auction worked, I threw myself into the process wholeheartedly (with some encouragement from the rest of the table) and eventually was successful, with some strong competition from the other end of the table.

Thankfully my brother Roger, who was also there, contributed half and without any prior warning, my bid, now ours, was matched by Kevin Foley and his wife, Luella. The money from the auction went to Cancer Research and the full amount was donated without any administration costs.

Richard spoke to us later in that evening and asked us to e-mail him once he could identify suitable dates, Tuesday the 23^rd February was the day selected.

We arrived at the training ground about 11.15 to be met by Richard who escorted us to the training pitches to see the players in action. Although it was great to see the player’s training it was also extremely cold. Richard then took us indoors to see the player’s facilities including the gym, changing rooms, treatment centre, spa bath, plunge pools etc. Whilst we were there we saw Chris Kamara from Sky who was there to film the treatment centre as it is the first centre to be accredited and he was there to try out the equipment in full view of the cameras.

Mick McCarthy came in for a quick photo shoot, and we then went to lunch in the player’s dining room only to be joined by Kevin Foley. Kevin confirmed that he has recovered from the DDCWWFCSCADD, not realising beforehand how immature and out of hand the dinner dance could get. He was happy to answer a multitude of questions and agreed to pose for a photograph outside before we left.

That only leaves me to thank the DDCWWFCSC for a great dinner dance, once again and the club, in particular Richard Skirrow, Kevin Foley and Mick McCarthy, for making it such a memorable day. It was well worth the money.

Melinda Phillips