Last month we held our annual Handover meeting where we recognise our outgoing Club President, Bob Cuff , and welcome our new Club President, Chris Philpot, who will lead the Club for the next year.

We are delighted to announce that under President Bob Cuff’s stewardship Stowmarket Lions raised over £50,000 towards good causes. This is a fantastic fundraising achievement which could not be achieved without support from the  local community and, of course, the Friends of Stowmarket Lions so a big thank you.

We raise money through events such as Santa Sleigh during December, Boxing Dinner in March, Golf in May, and our Bike Ride in June. We also collect for appeals such as the annual Poppy appeal and for Marie Curie.

Many of you will have attended one or more of our fundraising events and in doing so you are helping us raise money for local causes so again a big thank you.

We hope you can continue to support us at future events which would be very much appreciated.

Last Saturday we also helped at the Bacton Fayre, where we ran the carpark and the beer tent.  This was a terrific event and many people enjoying the sunshine and having a wonderful time.

Thank you from Stowmarket Lions

Next year’s ride will be on the 8th June 2025.

We had hoped for more riders but due to other engagements and the weather we had fewer this year than last.  After a survey from this year’s riders and from previous riders we are still getting very good feedback.

However this still means that we have raised just over £1,500 for the Lions Brain Tumour Research appeal and Lions charities.

The day was very good for cycling with the weather behaving, although a little windy on parts of the 100k route, making it hard work later in the ride.

Registration for the 100k started just after 8:00 with riders leaving at 8:15.  

There were three rest stops on the 100k with bananas and water bottles provided by Tesco.  A huge thank you to Tesco for supporting our ride with these items.  We also trialled water reservoirs for the second year running, so that we can reduce the amount of single use plastic.  This reduces the no of bottles of water that we ask for and use.

We don’t keep accurate times for the rides, however approximately we can say that the fastest for the 100k was 3hr 34min and the slowest was just under 6 hours.  

The marshals all enjoyed themselves and no incidents occurred.

Here are a selection of photos from the event:

Annual Boxing Dinner raises over £10,000 for local causes

Stowmarket Lions, in association with Eastgate Boxing Club, recently held their annual Ernie Pearce Memorial Boxing Dinner at the Debenham Leisure Centre. A capacity crowd of over 300 enjoyed a brilliant display of amateur boxing together with a delicious three course dinner with the event raising over £10,000 for local causes.

The Ernie Pearce Memorial Boxing Dinner, which is now in its 30^th year, is one the biggest fundraising events on the Stowmarket Lions calendar.

Commenting on this year’s event Stowmarket Lions Club President Bob Cuff said ‘the event has sustained longevity through the constant support of local businesses and individuals and I, on behalf of the club, would like to express my thanks for this continued support.

The event takes months of planning and commitment from many people to ensure it is well organised and runs smoothly, my thanks to all who have been involved in the planning and to those who helped on the night.’

If you would like a table with friends or colleagues at next year’s Boxing Dinner scheduled for Friday 21 March 2025 then please contact us at boxing2025@stowlions.org.uk 

Kevin