23 other clubs from the WPF had assembled at Cwmaman Welfare hall for the annual competition .
This years event was to be judged by Terrick Meakin APAGB ,ARPS. another judge who has actually done it all as opposed to those who claim to; his depth of knowledge on virtually all subjects was obvious in his critique although he did admit to” not having done portraits”
As the event got under way i was puzzledby the “witheld” comment on some entries , Dewi soon put me in my place , explaining that they would be the top entries, indeed about 4 images were held back from each of the 4 rounds.
Our entry was to be the second to be judged in each round so we very soon had Arfon’s Eye Contact up on the easel , A lovely portrait quoth the judge , perhaps a tad too much mascara has overdone the eyes not quite up to the with held status , still 17 points , that would normally be good enough for 20 in a club open competition .
Ken Watkins had made the journey to Cwmaman along with his wife for support to see his first external competion acceptance , “Ruffled Feathers” come up against very high standard opposition ; his mark of 13 would have been a disaster in a club open but in ths company it was a very good mark for his first effort, there were others that scored 10, a few 11’s and a 12 so he was not bottom by a long way, in fact a very good effort for your first selection Ken , keep up the good work, such a pity you could not stay for the top images , you missed some beauties !
a quick “Comfort Break” and we were in to round 3, hurray we had a with held (Haydn’s Lakeland Cart ) a new unseen image in the club taken on a recent weekend break with Dewi, Terry and Kevin. Round 4 was Terry Goss’s “Burryport Sunset”, “lovely sunset , lovely colour, but sorry the silhouette on the left hand side was just too black “, a precis of the Judge’s comments 13 points,. Lowest scores that round again a 10, 2 x 11’s and 4 12’s, some of which were from well known circuit regulars .
Summing up with top marks Swansea came away with 2 x 20 and a 18, Vale a 20 plus 2 x 18’s, Gwynfa andAberkenfig took the other 20’s; 19 points went to Port Talbot , Rhondda Llanelli and our selves. When these top scores were added to the others Swansea came away with overall honours plus best mono to Phil (5 x 4) Thomas for his portrait of “Rachel #3″and best colour print to Ann Davies for “The other Way” a well seen piece of graffiti art .
When we checked all the other score we found that we had come 9th, not bad, but room for improvement , oh well , “Next Year Jerusalem “,, just ask Arfon about that, it’s his motto, also something about a Greek God in the underworld too, always knew there was something of the dark side about him !
Entries for the Memorial Trophy Selection can be left in the box at the club next Tuesday and the next two Tuesdays, 2 prints per person , selection will take place probably on the 4th December to give me time to get them to the organisers.
Dpi’s will be in demand in the new year as we have two competitions that will need 20 and 30 dpi’s coming up, time to sift through yours and get out the best . More information will be published as it comes to hand .