This year’s Christmas meal was preceded by a walk from Twyford to Reading, as led by myself, along the River Thames, during which we had some fantastic weather. As the 12 of us arrived into Reading earlier than expected, we ended up with some spare time to get ready for the Christmas meal at Bill’s.
Once at Bill’s, 29 of us had our own room to enjoy our meal as well as the awards, with the whole afternoon being an absolute laugh. A few people also did a Secret Santa, with a wide range of gifts that worked well for everyone. Also as per the tradition, we had our annual walking awards. Each of the winners received a BW branded rosewood and marble coaster as well as a certificate, which went down really well with both the committee and winners.
The winners of this year’s awards are as follows:
- Best Trip(s) of the Year: Hugh – Lake District Trip. Hugh’s Cairngorms trip was only one vote behind, meaning that Hugh got 75% of the overall vote.
- Most Original Event: Robyn – South Downs Way.
- Best Walk Title: Tom – Flower Power 2: Revenge of the Rhododendrons.
- Best Repeat Event: Shannon – A trip to the Seaside.
- Best First Walk: Caroline – Charlbury, Chadlington, Waterfall and Bluebells.
- Most Walks Led: Alex – 19, followed by Michael – 15 and Dave – 14.
- Best Event Series: Alex – Sunday Stroll series.
- Walk Leader of the Year: Joint between Dave and Michael – tied on 7 votes. Alex came very close behind with 6 votes.
- Best Company on a Walk: Jason – We had 20 different nominations for this, making it too close to call. Therefore, we put the name of everyone who was nominated into a hat (with people who were nominated multiple times having multiple names in the hat), and the winning name (Jason) was pulled out of the hat by Grant.
- Special thanks: Paul and Michael – I was honoured to receive a special thank you award for all my hard work over the last year. Paul also received a special thank you present for all the time and effort he spent wrangling the BW finances.
Overall, the Christmas meal and awards were highly successful. This was also the last event that Andrew organised as the social secretary before I took over the role, so a big thanks to him for planning it and many other fantastic events over the last 3.5 years. I’d also like to give a huge thank you to everyone who made 2024’s awards possible by donating to the prize fund, and thanks to Shannon for her tireless organising and planning of the awards, certificates and prizes.
With the annual Winter Staycation drawing to a close, the BWs now have plenty of new walks and trips planned, including my walk series based around the Elizabeth line. Lastly, the BW committee would like to wish everyone a fantastic 2025!