Amman Valley Battle

Wednesday 17th October saw us back at the community centre Gwaun Cae Gurwen, (GCG for short), for our annual away battle with Amman Valley. A 8 print and 8 dpi battle it is the only battle where a member can enter more than one image, this gives our members a chance to score early points in the club championship. This year was to be no different.

Judge was the well known, Gareth Martin!

Round one, print, “As seen” by Cliff , well received ,17 points . Round two, “Nature with a twist”,by Ben, this is a very good close up as a specialised print but not liked in open comp by the judge,only 14 points, this dropped us down the ratings with 3 point deficit. Round three, “Eye Contact” by Arfon, well received, 17 points, but still 3 point deficit.Round four,”Orchids”by Dewi, this has done well in many competitions but not tonight, the judge obviously did not understand the make up of an Orchid!, only 15 points , now 7 to make up ! Round five,”Over theLast” by Haydn, lovely image from the local point to point this year, well liked by the judge, (favourite, ? see the pun ?), indeed well liked 20 points, now the deficit is down to 3 points. Round 6 “Childhood Reflections”, by Haydn ,again well liked by the judge,19 points, now we have a tenuous lead of 1 point! Round 7, penultimate print round, all to play for, “Fallow Deer” by Cliff, held it’s own, 17 points , we now have a 2 point lead! Round eight, last of the prints, “Sally Lightfoot”by Dave Edwards, despite joking about the crab coming from Dave’s deepfreeze, the judge conseeded that this was genuine, what ever could the rascal have been getting at!, still he did not like it enough, only 14 points, thankfully our nearest rivals Trostre only scored a 15 so we still had a 1 point buffer

Second half, DPI’s,

Round one, “Banking” by Haydn , 16 points ,Trostre pull out a 20, lead gone and 3 in arrears, round 2,”Lizard with Ant” by Colin Kelly, judge approved 20 points, back in the hunt , Trostre get a 15 so we are in lead again, round three, “Corus Sunrise” by Kevin Hunt, 16 points, Trostre get a 18, we are level again, round four,”Hay Bales” by Graham Cull, a revised version for me , converted to B/W, it works, Judge approves with 19 points ,Trostre get 15, we are back in a comfortable 4 point lead but anything can happen now, round five,”Jenna in the Forest”, although this judge likes young ladies, he doesn’t like Jenna , only 16 points, Trostre ?..18, lead now only 2 points.Round six,”Perfect Pair”by Brian Callard, judge liked it but felt there was room for improvement,16 points, luckily Trostre bombed with a 14, back to the 4 points lead, round seven “Rhossilli Headland” by Rob (Mr panorama head) Lethbridge, after a bit of discussion theorising on how it could be improved we got 17 points, Trostre bombed again with a over saturated Hibiscus and Swallowtail Butterfly ,only 14, we have almost got it, surely nothing can stop us now? round eight,”That Look” by Julian Brock, as i said the judge liked the ladies, he liked this one 17 points, my maths says we have won, we can not be passed but I do get it wrong sometimes !, Trostre a 15 for Technium, Phew we made it , well done every one. A 9 point lead, perhaps a bit exaggerated? who knows .

Apologies to Amman the hosts and Pembrey if I have not mentioned you, I do know that Amman actually beat us in the dpi rounds by one point, only a strong first half for us saw us through, they eventually came second overall as Trostre fell away slightly in the last few dpi’s

Well done selection committee, but we can not rest on our laurels , we still need a bigger range of images to work with