Many thanks for all the swimmers, pilots, observers, crews, families, friends and CSPF supporters that came together to make the 2025 CSPF dinner a wonderful celebration of the 2024 season, and an inspiring place from which to look forward to the 2025 season.

I would like to thank everyone who supported the 2025 Annual Dinner. This was the easiest dinner for me to organise and for that I thank you all!

I am delighted that you raised a whopping £1565 this year which the CS&PF will match up to £1500 resulting in a total donation of £3065 to the Dover RNLI.

I get a lot of recognition at the dinner, most notably this year I was asked “are you the lady that threatens to murder people?”, yes, that is me, oops! That said I could not do it alone and I wanted to take a moment to thank a few others that make the dinner the success it is:

Cliff Golding – Need I say more? Cliff is the lunatic that keeps us all in check and ensures that it is a special night personalised for everyone who has worked so hard to be there. You should be warned, if he goes, I go too so we best keep reminding him how wonderful he is!

Sarah Philpott – Thanks for being the technical genius that puts together the photo presentation ensuring memories of spectacular days at sea become part of the room to celebrate them so many months later. Emma France was a hard act to follow so well done for making it your own.

Jade Matos Carew – Another genius who has produced a menu that becomes a treasured memory each year. This year was a particular favourite of mine and the perfect way to celebrate Captain Webb.

Kathy Batts – You will never know how many calls and emails it takes, with a little help from our crystal ball to guess where a few payments have come from, but we’ve got this.

While Dover Town Hall has been closed for renovation we have celebrated at the Leas Cliff Hall Channel Suite. The team there have worked so hard to look after us and it is a wonder to me that they manage to feed so many of us when, I’m sure Cliff will agree, for the most part getting you lot sat down is like herding cats.

The Team at the Leas is headed by the wonderful Hue. Hue is an absolute delight to deal with and for me personally it will be a wrench to leave him behind should we return to Dover. Hue’s infectious happiness and enthusiasm shines through and his team follow his lead with nothing being too much trouble.

Finally, a massive thank you to Dave Chisholm. For those of you who do not know Dave he is the local cartoonist who designed the Captain Webb 150 this year. The perfect nod to this momentous anniversary in the history of Channel Swimming.

I still have some Captain Webb pin badges left so if you would like to buy some, please contact me at tickets@cspf.co.uk and we will get that sorted. They are £5 each. For those of you hoping to join us next year I will post details at www.cspf.co.uk as soon as I have a date and venue for you.

I wish you all a great 2025 season and I look forward to celebrating with you in 2026.

Best wishes

Michelle