The English St Bernard Club’s St Bernard of the Year competition was held at the 16th century Manor House, Weston Hall Hotel, Bulkington, Warwickshire on Saturday 8th February 2025.  Such a welcoming venue.  On going inside you could feel the excitement mounting with competitors entered from England, Ireland, Belgium, Poland, Wales and Scotland. 

The event had a good-sized ring and had an impressive display of glassware, gifts, embroidered bibs and rosettes for the main winners. 

The activities all started on the Friday evening when some of the competitors and committee members gathered for a meal.  A wonderful evening had by everyone which got the weekend off to a great start. 

Saturday morning, when walking into the room, you could feel the warm and welcoming atmosphere.  Mr Chris Pack opened the event by asking everyone to respect a minute’s silence following the loss of two well-known people that had given much to the breed -  Mr John Grubb and Mrs Rita Bell.  Both will be greatly missed.  The English St Bernard Club has made donations to the charities of their family’s choices in memorial.

The show opened with a parade of the exhibits, commentated by Mr Simon Luxmoore, each exhibit completing a circuit of the large ring while a presentation at the rear of the arena displayed a picture of the exhibit and their name. 

Any dog entered but unable to attend was still presented making a total of 36 exhibits.  Each exhibit was given a goody bag, rosette and embroidered slobber cloth.  The competition is held on a match basis with the running orders being determined by a random draw. 

The excitement and anticipated grew as Mr Luxmoore introduced the judges who had been kept secret until this point.  First to enter, all the way from South Africa, was Mr Kevin Young as principle judge.  Kevin is a top all-rounder judge in South Africa, with Saint Bernards being his own breed for over 40 years.  Then our second judge, Mrs Pauline Luxmoore-Ball.  Nobody guessed the identity of the judges.  They entered the ring to a wonderful round of applause. 

Puppies were first into the ring.  The overall winner for puppy of the year was H Venable-Smith’s Svanasjons Xtra Special (imp Swe). 

Next to compete were the yearlings; this was a strong section.  The overall winner of the Yearling of the Year was all the way from Poland, M Kubacha and P Kopinke’s Kingdom of Shadow Wielkopolski Bernardyn.  A lovely strong young smooth male.  Runner up for Yearling of The Hear was Alchazandis Sweet Bird of Paradise, owned by Miss B Lazarides. 

The next up were the Adults; in trying to decide the winner the judges were locked between two dogs, so the referee was called for, Mrs Norma Willoughby another surprise judge.  After going over both Saints, she declared the overall winner of Adult of the Year as L Kimberley and A Doherty’s Chedham Boys Are Best.  The runner-up was Surleval Draig Sisu, owned by C Phillips. 

The final section was Veteran of the year, which was won by Ms P Forrest and Mrs G March’s Ch Tombears Who Dares Wins Over Philandros. 

All the principal winners were given engraved glassware and beautiful rosettes.  The overall St Bernard Of The Year went to the Adult winner, L Kimberley and A Doherty’s Chedham Boys Are Best which was presented with the English St Bernard Silver Trophy at the evening’s trophy presentation dinner and dance.  This is a separate event that the English St Bernard Club organised, where the club’s magnificent array of trophies are on display and they are presented to members.  An excellent dinner then took place being enjoyed by all.  This year, during the meal there was a surprise in store when guests had the pleasure of being entertained by a surprise singing waiter.  Guests were interrupted by the clutter of dropped cutlery followed by a burst of song from the singing waiter.  He finished off with all joining in with the conga. Much fun and laughter was enjoyed by all. 

Once the meal and presentations had been completed guests listened intently to see if their lucky number had been drawn for the fabulous large raffle.  The enjoyment went on with those present dancing until the early hours. 

A wonderful day and evening at an excellent location steeped in history, the whole event was organised by the English St Bernard Club secretary Linda Martin with the able help of Chris Pack and Linda Pack.  A fantastic time was had by all. 

We are all looking forward to 2026 Saint Bernard of the Year event.