Centered around the opportunity to recognize and reward those who have made a real contribution to Wessex this year. The Guildhall was decked out for the occasion with sweeping curtains and lights, and the sportsmen and women were dressed to impress.

The night started with a warm welcome by the AU officer elect, Will Harvey, before diners were seated and the wine started to flow. Club Colours were awarded to those who had shown exceptional service to a club over the past two years, and half colours to individuals who had competed at the highest domestic level in their field.

At nine o’clock the non-diners poured into the Guildhall to listen to the remaining awards. These included the Vice-Chancellors Award, received by Carlos Brent for his substantial role within Southampton Badminton Club, alongside the completion of marathons in London and Barcelona, the completion of an ironman and a five km charity swim. The AU Fellowship Award was given to Stuart Ward for his fantastic work and commitment to University Lifesaving. The Most Improved Team was Ladies Rugby who achieved fantastic BUCS results and came second in the Bath Tournament. The Team of the Year went to the Shooting First Team, who this year successfully defended their title for the fourth year running.

The First Year Sportsperson award went to Adam Streeter for his superb water polo skills. The Sportswoman award was given to Gemma Harris for her outstanding skiing ability. Although completely worthy of the award, having received it last year it could be felt that other candidates missed out on recognition of their sporting talents through the repetition of this award in consecutive years. Finally, the Outstanding Athlete of the Year award went to James Paterson for his highly developed rifle skills.

Henry Potter, along with Allan ‘Bermuda’ Steynor, had clearly gone to a lot of effort to organize the event. The hall was well decked out and full of many drunken students. Those who wanted to buy a dining ticket were given the chance to eat with their sports fellows under the spectacular roof of the Guildhall. Potter and Bermuda also offered the cheaper alternative option (although still rather pricy) to go as non-diners, where there was the added bonus of buy one get one free on both food and drinks at the Orange Rooms.

The music started off well with a live performance by The Collective, which was later followed by DJ Shark who got the party started playing the mandatory Baywatch tune near the beginning of the set, ensuring that many Athletic Union teams had an early excuse to start stripping. Following their fairly short set were The Urban Knights who were, in comparison, a disappointment, with fairly erratic and poorly mixed tunes.

Other entertainment included the Nintendo Wii offering the chance to play Nintendo Sport and Guitar Hero. Such games are always going to go down a treat with students and it was therefore a disappointment when they were taken away at 11pm. In addition to this there was a ‘Bat Attack’ game. This was an extremely popular game in which many sportsmen and women battled it out. Disappointingly however, the game was prone to continually break, much to expectant players dismay. Fortunately the giant buzz wire proved more reliable.

The photosoc were there to ensure that the glorious event was captured, and could therefore potentially be a night to remember, after the large amounts of alcohol that were consumed. Individuals were given the opportunity to have photos taken in their glad rags, be it with a partner or as part of a team. Unfortunately, the camera battery power died long before the end of the night meaning that many people missed out. Nevertheless, it can be guaranteed that much less professional and rather embarrassing photos of the night appeared on various social networks the following day.