Chairman’s blog Thursday 18th December 2025

Our annual Christmas celebration with members looking back over 2025, and a fun quiz arranged by Ben Golding before Secret Santa gifts were distributed.
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Chairman's blog Thursday 18th December 2025

The more conservative of us simply wore a Christmas pulley. Blake Hammond came as the Grinch complete with green furry legs and the mask that was always going to prevent him eating his sausages. Joy abounded as we all anticipated the last meeting of the year with its associated celebrations.

Performance League

With this week’s activities to come, Blake Hammond is third on 128 points, Scott Griffiths second with 136 points and top of the tree is Paul Corrigan with 138 points. Don’t forget to enter your final activities on the website.

60-Second Presentation Round

The Education Presentation and Membership Matters were effectively deleted from our agenda and Catherine Foley was our Oscar adjudicator having swept all before her last week.

It is customary for me to refer to the various contributions that were made by the members, but in this last meeting of the year most members adopted an approach of simply thanking fellow members for their referrals over the year.

There were three contributors however who gone to the trouble of producing a poem; Ben Golding and Sarah Smith produced a pastiche on ‘The night before Christmas’ and Toby Acton eschewed the metaphor and produced a verse that he claimed had not been produced through AI.

Otherwise understandably the rest of the contributions were a thankyou or congratulatory. Nothing wrong with that of course but what of the Oscar.

It was Terry Maylin who produced an explanation of how he had laboured successfully to be appointed to the law society’s personal injury panel which is an honour he shares with only 1.5% of his fellow professionals. As the Oscar is a recognition of success Terry was the obvious choice.

Fun and Games

With the end of the 60 second round, it was over to Ben Golding. He produced an entertaining 45 minutes with a quiz with a Christmas theme and the distribution of the Secret Santa Presents. And very well thought out and the irritating quiz it was too; there was even a seven way tie for first place with a knockout question that produced Catherine Foley as a winner.

It simply remains for me to finalise this last blog of the year with my best wishes for Christmas and the New Year whilst looking forward to our dinner on Friday night that has been very well organised by our social secretary, Paul Corrigan. Our next meeting will be in 2026 when I hope we will have another good attendance.

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Paul Booth
Paul Booth
1 month ago

Great final meeting of the year and thank you Ben for leading the festivities.

Terry Maylin
Terry Maylin
30 days ago

Well done all on making our last of the year a great one and congratulations to the quiz winner and runners up!
Looking forward to doing it all again next year !

Stuart Smallcombe
Stuart Smallcombe
30 days ago

Great meeting this week, lots of fun. Enjoy your Christmas everyone, see you in the new year x

Catherine Foley
Catherine Foley
30 days ago

Loved the ‘end of term’ feel to this meeting and always up for a quiz! Thank you, Ben for organising it; thank you Secret Santa for my gift; and thank you all for making it worthwhile every Thursday to get up at such a hideous time!! Have a wonderful Christmas and a healthy and happy new year.

Leann Reason
Leann Reason
30 days ago

A great vibe for the final meeting of 2025! Thank you Ben for your fun quiz – thanks for my secret Santa gift. Wishing you all a lovely Christmas and see you in the New Year!

Sarah Smith
Sarah Smith
29 days ago

Thanks for the quiz Ben, and thanks everyone for your support this year. Wishing you all a lovely break ❣️

Jane Malyon
Jane Malyon
28 days ago

What a fun and friendship filled meeting! Thank you Ben for running the quiz and well done Terry for the Oscar! A great end to the EBF year xxx

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