Auction: The night that was...

Well.......what a fantastic evening at the Royal Hotel Nottingham!

Certainly one of, if not the, most enjoyable off the field moments I have experienced since I started supporting the Magpies in 1994.

To cap it all off, THE announcement made by Colin Slater, that the £250,000 had been reached by the Trust, was a huge relief to everyone connected with the club, and shows just what fantastic effort has gone into fundraising by the Trust, Notts County fans and football supporters up and down the country.

Tom (far right) and pals with Notts legends Les Bradd, Brian Stubbs, Bobby Tait and Tony Hately

Plenty of drink flowed throughout the night, certainly on our table anyway! On Table 23 we had the fantastic pleasure of having Les Bradd, Brain Stubbs, Bobby Tait and Tony Hateley of sharing the evening with us, and they had plenty of tales to tell as well as sharing the football banter that seems to linger on with them even today.

In all, the silent and normal auctions raised in total £28,000, with some of the fantastic items going for well over £1,000, so credit to those who did their bit and got their money out!

The sighs of relief could be heard all around the room when the earlier announcement, aided by a £30,000 gift from the Nottingham City & County Councils, and I would personally like to thank the ‘gang of four’ for their efforts.

Martin Naylor, Steve Thompson, Ken Carter and Richard Stanton spent hours upon end organising this event for many weeks, and I, along with all Notts fans, would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart for their efforts.

Notts County has been part of my life for many years and to be so close from having that taken away is something of a worrying thought, and without their efforts I would presume we would not be looking at the light at the end of what has been the longest of all tunnels!

Former players such as Devon White, Tommy Johnson, Dean Yates and Craig Short were in attendance, as were Notts County manager Bill Dearden and club captain Ian Richardson, plus the Nottingham Forest manager Paul Hart who made a speech during the evening.

Thanks to everyone for organising the evening, it was one I won’t forget in a hurry!

Tom Loakes.