Port Talbot 10 Way Print Battle

Last night, (Thurs 28th May) saw us take part in our last Battle of the current season.  Thirteen members made the trip to Sandfields Comprehensive School to support us in the Port Talbot 10 Way Battle.  As it was it turned out to be an eleven way battle and the Judge – Les Loosemore ARPS AWPF kept us in suspense until the last minute with his unique style of judging.

For those not familiar with his style, he scores anything up to 17, any print scoring above that is put onto his travelling stands until the end of the competition.  He then scores them accordingly.

This meant that at the break we didn’t have a clue as to how we were doing.  All we knew was that our opening 3 prints, Moorhen on Ice (Haydn Thomas), Who’s There (Terry Goss) and Clockwork (Colin Kelly) were not on the travelling stands having scord 17 points each.  With some clubs have 2 or 3 prints on the stands we reckoned we would finish around 5th or 6th.

After the break our next 2 images Through a Glass Darkly (Arfon John) and By Himself (Dewi Jones) were left unscored and placed on the afforementioned stands.  This was it, crunch time.  Les went through the withheld prints scoring them in order of showing.  Our first one Through a Glass Darkly scored 18,  and our last entry By Himself scored a magnificent 20 one of only three 20’s on the night.  We were all frantically totting up and with Merthyr scoring 90 we knew we were close.

The scores finished as f0llows –

  • 1st Place – Merthyr with 90 points
  • 2nd place , Neath, Swansea and Wakefield with 89 points (so close)
  • The Vale – 88pts
  • Gwynfa – 87pts
  • Port Talbot  – 86pts
  • Towy Valley – 84pts
  • Morriston – 81pts
  • Abertawe & South Yorkshire Police – 78pts.

So close, yet so far.  Well done to all who turned up and to the selectors who have done us proud this season.  Who knows, maybe next year we will win a few more, but we need your prints and PI’s to achieve the results.

Colin Kelly (Comp.Sec.)