At the beginning of 2011 when Tyne Bridge Harriers was newly formed and starting to gain a significant rise in membership, the idea to have a sweepstake – for a bit of fun and to encourage recruitment – to guess the amount of signed up athletes the club would have at the end of the year came into fruition.

The rules being;

It was £1 a go, with 50% of the total collected going to the club and 50% to the winner. To count, people will have had to have handed over a membership application form with some form of payment in full to a committee member by 31-12-11. If there is a dead heat with people picking the same number, then the prize money is split equally. If there is a dead heat with numbers either side, then the higher guess wins in order to encourage optimism. So for example if Paul guesses 53 and ‘Dave’ guessed 51 and the actual number is 52, then Paul wins. Anyone could have a go, friends, family, work mates, family pets, the sweepstake was open to all.. ‘as long as ya paid ya poond’

The rules were then ratified by being scratched into the steelwork at the base of the Tyne Bridge using a top from a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale before the sweepstake was officially opened amidst pomp & ceremony with the creation of a shiny new spreadsheet on the WFSS

The competition was most definitely on when Club Captain, Paul Hilton immediately spent his £1 wisely & put his first & only guess in of 999 members !!. We love optimism at Tyne Bridge Harriers. Keep taking the Lockets Paul

Other members took a more cautious approach and guesses came in from near & far.. (mainly near) ranging between 70 & 154

June 2011

By June 2011, the Club was growing at an amazing pace and had already welcomed it’s joint 50th membership when Brian Scott & Daniel Coyle signed up on the dotted line to be part of the mighty TBH Black n White Army.

The two new recruits were presented with their own unique 50 T-Shirts by Club Secretary Kenny Mac & Paul ‘Mr Optimistic’ Hilton

At this point, there was much tutting as some entrants into the sweepstake realised that their carefully thought out projections were going to be wiped out and their chance of claiming the ‘pot of gold’ prize at the end were fading fast.

Entries to the Sweepstake actually closed at midnight on 31st August 2011 which left a further 4 whole months of speculation & nail biting amongst those that were still in with a chance.

Membership to Tyne Bridge Harriers continued to grow at an amazing rate

November 2011

By the beginning of November 2011, we hit another ‘milestone’ as the club welcomed Tyne Bridge Centurians James Robson & Holly White to the growing battalion.

Our 100th members were presented with their own unique Club 100 Vest by Membership Secretary Steve Allerdyce

so actual paid up membership was 102 as we went into the final 2 months of the competition….

December 2011

As a very successful year came to a close, there was a steady rate of people joining the ranks of TBH and whispers were starting to circulate on Tuesdays & Thursday sessions of who the winner of the sweepstake may actually be from ‘people in the know’.

On 31st December 2011, the armour plate box containing the membership details of Tyne Bridge Harriers was taken from the secure vault and delivered by a convoy of high security vehicles (some were used as decoys to evade being followed) to the top secret location of Club Treasurer Dave Moir‘s House. Its treble combination security locks were undone, and the solid steel chains that en-cloaked the box were carefully removed. The box was then unlocked with a key forged from the same bottle top that was used to scratch the rules into the base of the Tyne Bridge. Inside the box was the envelope containing the final number and also the name of the winner.

The envelope was opened by Mr Moir…..

.. And The Winner Is…

*Drum Roll* The final results are in. At midnight on 31st December 2011, Tyne Bridge Harriers had 122 members however 7 of these members are not yet fully paid up so that takes it to 115 which means that Terry Latimer (Deka’s work mate) wins the prize with an exact guess !!. *Cymbal Crash*

There was a massive 40 guesses in all which means that Terry wins the fantastic life changing amount of £20.00 with the other £20.00 going to Club funds.

Congratulations to Terry & thanks to everyone who entered & enjoyed this bit of fun throughout 2011. There is a rumour that we will be opening the 2012 Club Membership Sweepstake very soon so listen out for further information.

Well Done