Waz We Robbed? at Bridgend Battle

Well judging by previous results we should have won, but of course nothing can be taken for granted, Arfon’s comments on his latest posting on the forum re inforce this admirably.

Our judge for the night Kevin Thomas  congratulated all clubs on the high standard of their work prior to delivering his words of wisdom ! The first round set the tone for the night, 2 images that  normally would score well only made a 14 and 13 whilst Newport had a well deserved 20 with their marathon runner entitled “Hurting”,” Corus Sunrise ” our first selection scored a respectable 17 and no comments on the “black abomonation” in the foreground as some judges describe it; indeed this judge liked it, he felt it added to the image!, Round two , a comment that the judge was fed up with seeing a particular  photo was noted but he still scored it a 17!, we got a 17 again with Dewi’s lith print of a Renegade Jeep that had seen better days , Swansea pulled a 19 with a black and white version of another  image that has been produced by everyone who goes to that great car  graveyard of Bodie National Park USA. Round three was a high scoring round for Cardiff with a artisticly posed ? image called “The Travellers” scoring 19 ” , “Dennis” from Swansea scored 18 we had  17 for Haydn’s “Childhood reflections”but Newport  topped us all with a 20 for a lovely image of a “Robin” who had obligingly perched on a snow covered post .

Half time  was quite even  with Newport on 53, Cardiff on 52, we had 51,Swansea 50 whilst host club Bridgend languished on 47; all to play for in the second half, could we pull it off against three major Welsh clubs with much larger population and membership ?, we felt we had a good chance.

Restart, “Olya” a haunting tightly cropped full face portrait from Martin Pinches for Cardiff gained them 19 points Newport dropped a 14 with a dragon fly  shot, Swansea had a 17 with a action shot of a Guitarist at Brecon Jazz festival 2007, but we kept up the pressure with a 19 for Arfon’s “The Threat”, rightly deserved too , remember this was a welsh international salon  selected  image!; 5th round was to be a make or break for us , Cardiff only had a 15 for their entry , Bridgend took a 17 but we were not watching them they were 6 behind us prior to this round!, Our “Clock tower “from Terry Goss was not to the judges liking (perhaps because he works from Cardiff) only 14, this was disaster but not completely; however our fears were compounde when Swansea scored a 20 for their “Immature mute swan”, putting them 2 points in the lead (3 over us), we still had Cliff’s Salon selected “As Seen”, surely this would help to redress the balance, Bridgend a 18 for a well seen beach scene, Cardiff 16 for that Scott Monument and Norwegian church , we are next , given the judges stated  preferences for  images with a story to tell surely we could get a 16 or possibly 17, no such luck a measly 13 I ask you !, Newport also went down badly this round thankfully with a 14 and Swansea only had 15 for a “Nude Triptych”.

Oh well, better luck next year , final scores were Swansea 102, Cardiff just failing to catch Swansea ,second with 101,Bridgend with a marvellous recovery third with 99, whilst we  held up the bottom with Newport on 97.

I must watch the “home team” at the next battle , as they select the order of running, I wonder if they keep their strongest work to last ?

Better luck this weekend at Aberdare, we have a extra car load of members to  support Ken Watkins’s first club representing selection of a Grey Heron , hope it does well for you Ken , don’t get lost on the way thats all !