2009 North West Carp “Unofficial Night Out” raises £750.00 for Charity

Now in its second year, the 2009 North West Carp “Unofficial Night Out” organised by forum regular Steve ‘Bl4cky’ Blackhurst raised over £750.00 for The Francis house children’s hospice in Manchester. This fantastic amount now takes the total amount raised for charity to over £1000.00! After such a successful event we asked Steve to pen a few words on how the “Unofficial Night Out” came to be and what might be in store for future.

Steve Explains “In 2007 I became a member of the northern monkeys forum and spent the coming months making new friends on the site, sharing stories, information and having a jape or two on the way. Later in that year I decided to hold a get together called the unofficial night out (U.N.O.) to be held at the Crewe vagrants cricket club near Nantwich in Cheshire for all forum members who were interested in coming. The night was planned for February 2008 and I thought it would be great to put names to faces and toast the previous years carping and raise a glass to the coming year with my fellow anglers and forum friends.

As an afterthought I decided to have a bit of a raffle and put the proceeds from this and the gate receipts to a charity, that being cancer research. The night came and a very nervous, greying carp angler waited with crossed fingers to see how things panned out. It turned out to be a remarkable success with £250 being raised for charity and much ale being swilled and fun had. Little did I know that I had started what could be a regular entry in the Northern Monkey calendar!

Roll on to January 31st 2009 and the second of the U.N.O.’s was being held (imaginatively called the U.N.O.2!) and again the slightly more grey carp angler from crewe was biting his now knackered finger nails and going over how the night was going to pan out. It had taken a few months of planning but again the Vagrants was the chosen venue for much debauchery (I should have known what a daft comment said whilst under the influence would bring me to do!!) and many a tackle firm/shop had been blagged with myself and many forum members going cap in hand trying to obtain donations to be used as prizes for the now infamous raffle. My team of U.N.O. helpers had been again called on for their expert selling of raffle tickets (the ever consistent Big Dave) and my new helper Shaun the DJ for the night. We made our way to the venue at 6.30pm on the Saturday of the event and set up for what we hoped would be another entertaining and successful night.

The night kicked off with many travelling far and wide to frequent the establishment and partake in a drink or three. As I stood there, watching the proceedings develop I couldn’t believe the amount of prizes that were turning up. We had bait and gear to last a year long session on a water (or maybe Jim Shelley on an overnighter!) and the people kept coming through the door. A young chap by the name of Boothy had been cajoled into shaving his beautiful l’oreal locks on the night to aid the cash total and was accosted early on and plumped in the corner where his Ginola barnet was stripped from him in a few fell swoops.

Cash was collected from the donators and many a snap was taken of our new bald friend who had somehow acquired a dashing half arsed attempt of a Nike tick in the back of his head during the shaving ceremony! I at this time had to start my “host with the most” persona; mingling with the guests and drinking the bar dry of cider whilst my helpers sold raffle tickets and collected the gate receipts. I was oblivious to the total that was being accumulated in the money tin behind me as chewed the fat with my forum brethren over fishy tales and plans for the future.

Next came the raffle; I had started the U.N.O.2 thread on the forum as being “The U.N.O. 2 the man in the mankini” and never being one to bottle or shirk such responsibilities had decided (much to the hilarity and the horror of the audience) to present the raffle whilst wearing the lime green monstrosity. A mankini is never much of a bonus in the old diddle department but calls of “it’s a grower, not a shower” never help a blokes confidence - but thank god for alcohol!

I don’t think anybody could have foreseen how an idea of having a get together with a few mates off a website could blow up into such a successful little event in the space of two years. We raised £750 on the U.N.O.2, and this coupled with the previous years amount takes the total now raised for charity to over a thousand pounds. This year’s money is going to The Francis House Children’s Hospice in Manchester which is a more than worthy cause to donate to.

The U.N.O. nights are only a success by the people who give to it, whether that be donating a prize for the raffle, buying a raffle ticket or just giving up your time to be there. It humbles me in such cash tight times that people can give something back and dig deep to find the resources to help others, and I would just like to thank everyone again for their efforts and I hope you catch the fish of your dreams - you deserve it.

You can read more about the U.N.O and other charity fishing events HERE.

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2009 North West Carp “Unofficial Night Out” raises £750.00 for Charity

Phil Wain