Phoenix Awards Night 2013

Tweet

J Davidson sponsored Manchester Phoenix held their annual awards night at the splendid Mercure Hotel on Thursday night.

A large gathering of the Faithful was treated to a player auction to start proceedings with Tom Duggan, Robert Schnabel and Stephen Fone allocated to supporters’ tables. The mini auction raised £125 for the Foundation.

The next item was a video presentation celebrating 10 years of Manchester Phoenix. Judging by the reaction of the crowd, this was a fantastic trip down memory lane.

The first award of the night was Defenceman of the Year, sponsored by Kingfisher and went to club captain Luke Boothroyd.
 
Forward of the Year, sponsored by J Davidson, was the club’s top goal scorer Michal Psurny. 

Michal said: “I am honoured, but we are not done yet, we have the playoffs to win.”

Understandably this remark was very well received by those in attendance.

On to the Best all-round Player, sponsored by Athlete Matters. This was awarded to Ben Wood.

After a break for the buffet, the night continued with three new awards for this season, voted on by the players themselves.

First up was “Juice Boy”. This one went to the ever popular Ben Wood. Then came the “Phoenix Fashion Award”, for the player deemed to have the most dubious fashion sense. Michal Psurny took this one, much to the anguish of Richard Bentham, who thought he was nailed on for the title.

Michal commented: “This means more than an Olympic Gold or winning the Stanley Cup.“

Who said Michal was shy? The last of these trophies was “Bambi on Ice”; Ben Wood winning his second ‘alternative award’ of the night, giving the audience a fair old chuckle.

Back to serious business with the award of the fans’ Favourite Player of the Season.  This went to Mr 110%, Tom Duggan.

This was followed by the Supporters’ Club Player of the Year and Michal Psurny was the happy recipient.

Moving on, the next award, one much coveted by the players, was the Coach’s player of the year.  Tony Hand’s choice this season was Luke Boothroyd.

Tony said of the accolade: “This award is not just for performance on the ice but also for off-ice activity and how the player is in the locker room. Luke turns up to play every night and his calm manner and professionalism make him an excellent captain and my player of the year”

Luke replied: “I get enough stick from him (Tony Hand). It is nice to get something positive from him.”

On to the players’ Player of the Year, another award that means a lot to the guys in the locker room. Luke barely had time to sit down as he was called up again to receive this award.

With the inception of the brand new Manchester Phoenix Sledge Hockey team, an award was given to their Player of the Year with Rob Allen being its first recipient.

The formal part of the evening was concluded by MD Neil Morris and Coach Tony Hand thanking the fans, sponsors and team for all their work this season.

Tony concluded by saying: “Let’s get to Coventry and win the play-offs, we have the team to do it.”

The festivities continued with music, dancing and merrymaking as fans and players mingled on the dance floor.

Once again an excellent night and special thanks to all the sponsors and to the Mercure Hotel for hosting the event.

---