POCKLINGTON RUFC may have had a disappointing season, but they still know how to celebrate in style as 100 players, vice-presidents and guests came together for an excellent end-of-season dinner and presentation night in their Percy Road clubhouse.

Club president, Peter Kite, handed over the trophies. With Pocklington's 1st XV fielding up to ten teenagers some weeks, there was any number of contenders for young player of the year.

But on the night it went to 18-year-old tight head prop, Dave Birch, who came on in leaps and bounds in his first season at the club. Most improved player went to 20-year-old three-quarter, Tim Bolton, who was the team's leading try scorer.

In such a young side, player of the year, Steve Wilcock was a veritable veteran at the age of 25, and he was a popular choice after a season that again saw him play in all three rows of the scrum to a high standard.

Teenage three-quarter Toby Shann was the Panthers' player of the year, and there was a special presentation to Rob Webber to celebrate his selection for England Under-18s and the England Development XV.

But while the young players got deserved recognition on the night, so too did a couple of the club's longest serving members.

Allen Clovis picked up the clubman of the year salver to mark his 35 years as a Pocklington official, firstly as captain of the Merovingians for over a decade, then as bar chairman.

Tim Slater was again the master of ceremonies for the dinner, and he also received the Pock 7s Trophy for his 30 years behind the announcer's microphone on Good Friday.

The Merovingians had presented their awards a couple of months earlier on the way back from their hugely successful tour to Jersey, with back row Nick Hobson getting their player of the year award, and teenage scrum-half Ben Rees being voted young player of the year.

The Under-10s won the team of the year award having won the East Yorkshire tournament and reached the Yorkshire Cup semi-finals before ending their campaign with the Fair Play Trophy at the Darlington festival in May.

But their success was all the more remarkable as they went into the season with hardly the bare bones of a side. They recruited well, quickly moulded the old and the new into a formidable outfit, and from there on never looked back. And team manager Mark Davison was over the moon to collect the trophy

Dinner secretary, Tim Bradshaw had organised the event impeccably at the first attempt, and the evening was given a humorous boost by former Pocklington player, Barrie Turner, followed by a hilarious finale from top comedian Martin Gold.

With the 2002-03 season out of the way, thoughts immediate move on to next year and the club's annual meeting and election of officers is next Tuesday in the clubhouse at 7.30pm.

Updated: 11:19 Saturday, June 07, 2003