The Mayor of Carlisle’s Charity Dinner & Cabaret

On Friday 28th October, we attended The Mayor of Carlisle’s Charity Dinner which was held at The Shepherd’s Inn, Carlisle.

We were presented with ‘an evening of entertainment’ with International Comedy Entertainer Brenda Collins and local Swing Singer Andy Whitaker.

Greeted with a glass of champagne we were soon ushered into the main room for a fantastic 4 course dinner. Comedienne Brenda Collins then took to the stage... after 40 years in show business Brenda has built up a reputation second to none. Her clean inoffensive comedy brought the house down.

Shortly followed by Swing singing sensation Andy Whitaker, the evening turned out to be truly memorable.

The evening’s activities were in aid of the Mayor’s beneficiaries - Hospice @ Home (Carlisle and North Lakeland), NSPCC Carlisle, Citizens’ Advice Bureau (Carlisle) and Community Projects Carlisle. A raffle offered great prizes including Carlisle United match tickets and pre-match dinner at Foxy’s restaurant which was won by Robin Brown.

Overall, £800 was raised on the night which is fantastic for all involved.

Sarah Seavor

Highly Strung sings for Charity

On Friday night a group of colleagues, friends and myself attended a charity night at the Swallow Hilltop in Carlisle organised by Andy Whitaker from the group Highly Strung, with all proceeds going to the Air Ambulance.

The night resembled a star studded red carpet event – cameras flashed as photos were taken of guests arriving and beautiful decorated tables provided a fantastic backdrop for the evening. The support entertainment was provided by the Alleys - a young band from Carlisle that is destined for success and will soon hopefully be the support act for ‘Mcfly’.

All entry tickets were put into a raffle to have the opportunity to win some fabulous prizes. A second raffle asked people to donate £5 to again win some fabulous prizes including a tie pin, cuff links, gorgeous smellies from Lush and dinner for four at Fontana’s fish and chip shop; a prize that I won.

Next came the charity auction with Sandra bidding for Highly Strung to come and play at her house, but unfortunately she got piped at the post! Next came ‘Dippy Dickinson’, a Comedian who told jokes and sang songs in a broad Cumbrian dialect, with his smart outfit, wellies and hat, he looked like he had just walked off the farm.

Eventually it came to the highlight of the evening… a performance by Highly Stung. They pulled out all the stops and brought the house down. The atmosphere was brilliant and whilst everyone danced, Andy sang happy birthday to Sandra (who was 40).

A fantastic night was had by all with plenty of money being raised for another good cause.

Linda

CN Business Awards 2011

Last night, we had the honour of attending and sponsoring the CN Business Awards at Rheged. The night, organised by CN Events was truly spectacular – an unforgettable evening that combined classical black tie, glamorous frocks, warm lighting and a sumptuous three course dinner.

With his enthusiastic demeanour, guest speaker James Timpson, Managing Director of the Timpson Group delivered a motivational and inspiring speech that was funny and entertaining.

David Allen was proud to sponsor the Young Entrepreneur category. This category had three very deserving nominees, all who have shown and will continue to show strong leadership qualities and management skills through their own initiative.

Helen Pearson, journalist and TV presenter for ITV Tyne Tees & Border, announced the winner in our category... Marie Tattersall of Acorns Pre-School.

Marie launched her business after becoming frustrated with the childcare available when she wanted to attend college and now provides a challenging and inspiring learning experience for children. Acorns were also shortlisted in the National NMT Nursery Awards as Best Business Newcomer.

Well done to all the winners, nominees, those that contributed to the nominations, voted and participated. We had a fantastic evening and look forward to 2012.

Sara Deans

CN Business Awards 2011

We are all really looking forward to the CN Business Awards tonight which are being held at Rheged and would like to wish all of the finalist’s good luck.

As proud sponsors of the Young Entrepreneur Category, we would also like to wish good luck to finalists, Jeni Banks of May Fifteen Ltd, John Graham of Merienda and Marie Tattersall of Acorns Pre-School.

Also good luck to Joe Wilkinson of J&S Wilkinson Limited who is finalist in the Businessperson of the year category.

We are looking forward to meeting all of the finalists tonight and having a great night to celebrate their achievements.

Alison Welton

Mitchell's Auction of Suckled Caves

On Friday 14 October, Craig and I travelled to Cockermouth to attend Mitchell’s Annual Show and Sale of 716 Suckled Calves.

As one of the sponsors, we arrived just in time for the pre-sale show that was being judged by Mr. David Jackson of Bridlington. Mr Jackson was presented with a very high quality selection of 43 cattle and after a very professional job he awarded the championship to a Limousin heifer from Peter Bland, Knott Houses, later selling at £1,600 to Keith Harryman. The reserve champion also came from Knott Houses, whose Limousin steer sold at £900 to the judge.

An outstanding show of cattle were auctioned on the day with most of the customers remaining around the ring, giving Craig and myself an opportunity to meet up with various past and present clients.

Trade was very good with heifers averaging £607.62, up £84 on 2010. Steers averaged £703.51, up £97 on 2010 and bulls averaging £685, up £93 on 2010. There were 73 purchasers from Warwickshire to Aberdeen and many went home empty handed.

Kevin Collier

Full show results can be found at www.mitchellslivestock.co.uk.

NFU Annual Dinner

On Friday 14th October, David, Sandra, Michael, Emma Pigg, Kevin Batty and myself invited a selection of clients and guests to join us at the annual NFU dinner.

The event was held at Greenhill Hotel, near Wigton and was well supported by many local businesses and farmers. Some of the proceeds from this year’s event are to be given to the Farming Crisis Charity, which provides support to farming people in times of stress and anxiety.

After a delicious 3 course meal, the guest speaker, Alex Fleming who was previously an auctioneer at UA auction mart (United Auctions, Scotland's leading Livestock Auctioneers) took the floor, he was a very funny comedian who involved the audience with his jokes and gags.

The night gave us a chance to meet and catch up with other professionals, businesses and individuals in the farming community and I can say without doubt that we all had a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Craig Pollock

Cumbria Grassland Society

On Thursday night, Sandra, Michael, Kevin Batty and I went to Penrith Golf club to do a presentation at the Grassland Society’s AGM.

The night started when we joined the committee members for an informal meal - this was a great chance to get to know some of the members better and also meet new faces.

Richard Chester who was chairing the meeting began the proceedings. Once the AGM was finished there was a discussion about ‘interesting speakers’ for forthcoming meetings – this put a huge amount of pressure on Sandra and Michael to make their talk on tax a little more fun and interesting!

Sandra discussed what the firm does; how David started off 14 years ago in his garage and the latest tax issues including Renewable Energy Tax and VAT. Michael spoke about dairy benchmarking and then Kevin finished off with a brief talk on available grants, NVZ’s and the initial announcement on SFP changes from 2014.

The audience asked many questions during the presentation and then afterwards over coffee and biscuits on a more informal basis.

We all had an enjoyable evening. It gave us a great opportunity to meet new farmers, new contacts and to catch up with people we hadn’t spoken to in a while.

Emma Pigg

Northern Construction Charity Dinner

On Friday night David, Alison Welton, Jackie Matthews and myself hosted a table at the Northern Construction Charity Ball.

This event is hosted each year by Northern Constuction and all proceeds go to a nominated charity - this year the event was in aid of the Eden House Children’s hospice which needs over £800,000 per year to keep going.

We invited several guests to join us for the evening, these included Tanya and Sonya Haandrikman from Celebration Cards in Carlisle, Nicholas Brown and Ann Smiley from Hoteligent and David and Tina Labram from Gemini Communications.

The night consisted of a four course meal followed by entertainment from Jonathon Wilkes and his swing band and Andy Whittiker, a local singer. There were various fundraising events throughout the evening including a silent auction and a charity auction.

It was a fantastic night enjoyed by everyone but more importantly lots of money was raised for a very worthwhile charity.

Michael Peile

Leadership Masterclass - guest speaker Hamish Taylor at Energus

Sandra Gowling, Jackie Mathews and I all had the pleasure of attending a Leadership Masterclass held at Energus in Lillyhall today. Hamish Taylor was the guest speaker and gave a very interesting talk about his life experiences and the leadership skills that he has gained during his successful career, starting at Procter and Gamble and working for various other high profile businesses including British Airways, Eurostar and Sainsburys Bank.

All three of us took a great deal from Hamish's presentation and I would definitely recommend going to see Hamish if you are given the opportunity in the future.

Julie Osborn