The venue was Wivelsfield Village hall and the competition was run by our friends at Steyning CC, and aloyal band of seven Storrington CC members turned out to see the fun.
This competition is altogether a step up from the Regnum Crouch events as there are always at least 20 clubs from East Sussex, West Sussex and Kent taking part, amongst whom there are some very good competitors.
The Judge was Caroline Colgate ARPS who judged the Regnum competition at Bognor Regis a short time ago, so we had some very detailed explanations of how she came to award her marks. She awarded only seven 20s; nine 19s and thirteen 18s amongst over 100 images submitted.
In the first round Eastbourne got the only 20 and so led for a very short time. Liz Barber's 'This Feels Nice' was awarded 17 and this put us 9th. The judge really liked Liz's portrait.
In round 2 there were three more 20s from Uckfield, Battle and St Ore and St Helens CC and Paul Hayward's 'Mothers Meeting' image ( a great shot of six Giraffes with one looking the other way) was awarded 16. This put us in 11th equal position along with five other clubs.
Round 3 gave us a bit of a boost when my 'Golden Eagle with Hare Kill' was awarded 19, and at tea break we rose to 6th equal, tied with three other clubs.
In the 4th round Ian MacWhirter's 'Polar Bear Courtship Behaviour' was also awarded 16, marked down because it was taken in an exotic place that the judge would never be able to visit. Caroline did the same thing to one of Ian's pictures at Bognor. Anyway we ended up still 6th equal.Up to this point Uckfield were in the lead by one point followed by Steyning.
In the final round Martin Tomes' 'Evil Clown' (a striking clown picture painted on the fuel tank of a motor bike) scored 18 and this put us up finally to 5th equal with East Grinstead with a total of 86 points.
The winners were Steyning with 92 and it is fair to say they had some very good images indeed. Second were Rye and District CC with 88; and third equal were Littlehampton and Uckfield (who only got 13 for their last image, how must the author of that image have felt!!) and they both got 87.
So, we were only 2 points behind the second club and if Ian had not been picked on and if we had selected one of Paul's better pictures etc etc. Judges are there to do a job like sports referees and their judgments should not be criticized. One of my Wife's Aunts was nicknamed 'If only'.
I think that our result was brilliant since we are small fry compared to some. Well done us!