To celebrate International Women’s Day today (8th March), organisers of the annual Women In Meat Industry Awards (WIMIA) have announced that tennis star, TV broadcaster, and ‘Strictly’ finalist Annabel Croft is to be the celebrity host at this year’s 5-star ceremony in London on 29th November.
The Women In Meat Industry Awards is the unique annual celebration of those who work in all sectors across the British and Irish meat industry.
Nominations will open in June, followed by voting for candidates in 12 categories. Then from the 12 category winners, an overall Meat Businesswoman of the Year will be selected by a panel of judges.
Editor of Meat Management magazine Joanna Thomson commented: “These annual awards are growing and growing every year, and the ceremony is a really special date in the meat industry calendar.
“We are absolutely delighted to welcome Annabel to host the event. She is a really lovely person and a great success in her own field of sport and broadcasting. Not a bad dancer either! We have another brilliant evening to look forward to this coming November.”
British Tennis Champion Annabel Croft actually retired from professional tennis at the age of 21.
She was born in London and raised in Kent where she learnt to play tennis at the age of nine. She soon emerged as a player of immense promise and within three years had become the National Champion at under 12yrs, 14yrs and 16yrs age groups.
At 15, she was the youngest Briton to play senior Wimbledon for nearly 100 years. In 1984 she became junior Wimbledon Champion as well as Junior Australian Open Champion. A year later she collected her first senior tournament trophy in San Diego.
Annabel’s charm and entertaining playing style made her a great favourite with the crowds, both at live tennis events and on television and these attributes transferred naturally to the world of media.
Immediately after her retirement, Annabel developed, and continues to enjoy, long term relationships with many of the leading broadcasters’ tennis output, both as an anchor, tennis reporter and as an all-round sports correspondent.
Away from sport, Annabel has also developed a successful media career, initially as the face of Channel 4’s ‘Treasure Hunt’ and ITV’s ‘Interceptor’. She has also taken part in a series of the award winning ‘Filthy Rich and Homeless’ for BBC1, where she lived homeless on the streets of London for nine days.
And there is a food connection as Annabel hosted her own series, ‘The Flying Picnic’, for Granada and Sky Travel. Travelling around in an original DeHavilland Moth plane, she collected the ingredients from around Britain to recreate the famous household guru’s ‘Mrs Beeton’s Picnic for Forty’ which received record viewer ratings. Tapping into her passion for healthy and fun eating and cooking for family and friends, ‘The Flying Picnic’ saw Annabel celebrate the quality of food Britain really has to offer.
Every year, Annabel Croft plays an integral role in the coverage of Wimbledon, hosting Live@Wimbledon for four years for the tournament hosts and its global Internet audience as well as BBC Radio 5 Live.
Annabel also presents and commentates on the four Grand Slams – The Australian Open in Melbourne, The French Open in Paris for 5 Live, Wimbledon for BBC TV and Radio and The US Open in New York for Amazon Prime Video. In fact, Annabel works as a presenter / pundit / commentator for virtually every major tennis tournament throughout the year.
In 2023 Annabel commentated at the Australian Open, French Open, Eastbourne and Wimbledon on 5 Live. At the 2023 Ladies and Men’s finals at Wimbledon Annabel undertook the on-court interviews presenting the finals presentations which were seen by over one billion people.
In Autumn 2023 Annabel swapped her tennis shoes for dancing shoes where she took part in the UK’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and reached the Semi Finals and has recently finished the UK tour of Strictly Live.
This year, Annabel will be presenting and commentating for Sky Sports and the BBC at all the main tennis tournaments and says she is also really looking forward to joining everyone at the Women In Meat Industry Awards ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London, on Friday 29th November.
For details of the ceremony and to take advantage of an early bird discount on table reservations click here.
Thank you to our official 2024 Awards Partners:
