It is 5am and I am awake from natural causes. I try to go to sleep again, but I start to mentally do my report on last night’s meeting; and so I decide to get up, arm myself with paper and pen, and start to write this!!
Last night it was our turn to hold our round of the Southern Fed. P.I. competition. We appointed the judge who was Carol Speight ARPS from Chichester CC, who lives in Billingshurst. Carol has been a judge for us in the past and was favoured by Chairman Chris as he got his first 20 from her.
The marks are out of 10 (with half marks) in this competition, which is a far better system than ours out of 20. Most of the marks given in our competitions are between 15 and 20, which means that 75% of the marks are rarely given. Only twice in my time at Storrington CC marks under 10 been given; and is it not better to be awarded 7 out of 10 rather than 14 out of 20??
Anyway, we are in Division Seven which has eight clubs competing, and each has entered eight images: so, 64 images to be judged.
I always like looking at other club’s images, and in fact any images from wherever, but it appears that not many club members share this concept as the event was very poorly attended.
As I had not been involved with selecting the images this year, as I was unwell, I had no idea which were our images, except my hero Ian’s brilliant shot ‘Arctic Terns courtship’ which got our highest mark of 9.
There were four 10s: the first was ‘Thirsty Cat’ by Barb Close from Niton District CC which was of a tiger drinking from a pool of water. Secondly, ‘Pavement Refection” by Diana Brownlee from Haslemere CC which was a reflection of some buildings in a puddle on a pavement; but there was a bright red building amongst them which shone out and just made the image jump out at you, brilliant. Next was ‘Watchful Fox’ by Graham Mulrooney from Burghfield CC a which looked exactly like a similar image taken at the British Wildlife Centre, I think by Jane Coward. And finally, ‘Red Soled’ which was of a high-heeled shoe covered in ‘glittery spankles’ with a bright red sole.
The image jumped out at you as it was razor sharp and full of colour, brilliant again.
The final result gave Niton District the winners with 66 and a half marks (largely due to their two 20s) and we were 7th out of 8 with 57 marks. At the last venue we came 3rd, so we have dropped down again! I personally wonder why we continue to enter this competition since we do not know any of the other clubs taking part and they are all miles away. [Ed: I think that is the point, we see images from outside our normal circle of clubs]
Our thanks to Carol for her informative comments and doing the business for us.