The Regnum print competition was hosted by Bognor Regis CC at the St Mary's centre Felpham.
The Judge was Caroline Colgate ARPS and she was very good giving very specific reasons for all her marks for the entries.
Eleven clubs took part, but the evening was dominated by Chichester CC who started of with a 20 in the first round and followed that with two more out of a total of only six awarded altogether. Their lowest score was 16 for the brilliant shot of Carmarge Horses taken by Rosie Armes!!
Our first picture was awarded 17 and this placed us 6th and was Daisy's lovely picture of a sparrow framed on a wire fence called 'Framed'. Next up was Ian MacWhirter's 'Wasp Spider' which got 16 and we swept up to 5th equal! Sadly John Gauvin's 'Popping the Cork' only got 14 and we dropped back to 8th at the break.
In round 4, Peter Michell's 'Hot Saxaphone' was awarded 18 and we lept up to 5th place. In the 5th round Ian's 'Kittywakes feeding in glacier melt water' got 16 and finally, Martin Tomes 'Askham Fell' also got 16.
This placed us 7th equal overall and I was not alone in thinking that we had not presented our best work and we could have done much better. I am responsible for assembling the selection teams for these competitions and usually take part; but on this occasion I had a last minute family commitment and could not make it, and some may think my comment is 'sour grapes'.
I would just make a point about two of our entries and hope the authors will not be upset. Ian MacWhirter is without question in my mind our star wildlife photographer and printer. His Kittywake picture was selected by the Nature group of the RPS for this years exhibition and I saw it exhibited in London. However for this type of competition it was not really appropriate. Also John's cork picture was quite amazing and I for one would not be able to take that picture if I tried for a month. It quite rightlygot high marks in the set subject competition in which it was entered. However, sadly it was not right here. We all know that both these gentlemen have pictures that could have got higher marks in this competition. We have clearly got to look again at how we select our pictures in future, and after this little outburst I shall be lucky to get anyone to select!
I appologise to the members of the selection committee on this occasion for my observations and again to the authors of those pictures, but I had to get my feelings known.