RESULTS-PAGB Inter Club Print Championship 2011

PAGB Inter Club Print

Championship 2011
Sponsored by Darwin Clayton (UK) Ltd & Permajet Ltd.

Deeside College Connahs Quay in Flintshire on
Saturday 22nd October 2011 starting at 10.00 a.m.

Judges: Tom Dodd DPAGB FRPS
               Irene Froy MPAGB EFIAP HonPAGB

               Anne Sutcliffe FRPS EFIAP

 

This was held at Connah’s Quay last Sunday 22^nd October, and Tenby camera club won the Plate Competition.

I would like to give the background of this event and explain the enormity of what this simple statement means. The PAGB is the national body representing all photographic clubs in Great Britain, the clubs have been split into 15 area associations, the Welsh Photographic Association being the one that we belong to.

Every year the area associations choose two member clubs to go forward and represent them at the PAGB Inter Club Print Championship. Tenby and Gwynfa had been chosen by the WPF as they were the two clubs who had tied for first place in the Gwyn Morgan Trophy at the Welsh Salon. Clubs that did well in the previous year had prequalified and so 36 clubs lined up to do battle last weekend with an audience of over 300 people for what is in effect the ‘British National Championships’ for prints. The format of the competition is that there are two rounds with the top 8 clubs after the first round competing for the Cup and the remaining 28 clubs competing for the Plate.

Jill Baxter had to decide beforehand which 12 prints had to be entered in the 1^st round with restrictions being imposed on the number of authors, colour, mono and wildlife prints being submitted. It was very much a case of having a broad selection of prints and crossing your fingers that the judges liked that sort of thing. As it was we did very well and when the scores were all added up we totalled 140 points just 5 points short of qualifying for the Cup!

There was a maximum possible of 15 points that could be scored for each print. 432 prints were judged, lowest score being 9 and highest being 15. Lots of prints were given 9 but fortunately we didn’t get one. 10 or 11 were the average scores with fewer achieving 12 or 13 and 14’s were rare and only 4 prints achieving the maximum of 15. The 12 images we had put forward in the 1^st round were,

Metal Worker                    Jill Baxter               10

Kite Surfer                        Mike Cullis              13

Right Time, Right Plaice    Roy Packer              12

Walking in the Rain          Gill Mackay             11

At Home                           Gill Mackay             12

Red Squirrel                      Andrew Baxter        12

Pisces                               Jill Baxter               11

Stockings Laid Ready        Jill Baxter               14

Liwa Sand Dunes               Mike Cullis              11

Societa Operuia                 Gill Mackay             10

East Wind                         Jill Baxter               11

Kingfisher Celebration       Paul Richards           13

 

So we were in the Plate, all points scored to date counted for nothing and Jill Baxter had to select a further 5 images for the deciding round. It became apparent that the judges didn’t favour creative work or studio portraits however straight sports images were getting high marks.

 

After much deliberation and soul searching the following prints were chosen:

 

Turkish Woman with Cats  Jill Baxter               12

Kite Surfer                        Mike Cullis              12

Point of Exhastion            Mike Cullis              12

Leather on Willow             Sue McKehon           13

Stockings Laid Ready        Jill Baxter               14

 

A very nervous wait then followed for the results to be announced and it soon became apparent that we had tied with Stafford Photographic Society for first place, and we each won a silver medal and shared the plate. Needless to say there were considerable whoops of joy and cries of Yes! Yes! etc. from the Welsh contingent. We did however restrain from doing a conga around the hall.

 

The Cup Championship was jointly won by Edinburgh PS and Arden PG who both presented prints of excellent quality. Wigan 10 were in 3^rd place which seemed to please some clubs. The magnitude of what we achieved cannot be understated, Tenby has never qualified for this completion before, and no Welsh club has ever won the plate or come close to qualifying for the cup. Every credit should be given to Jill Baxter for her choices, to those members who prints were used and also to those many members whose prints were in Jill’s portfolio which meant she had a wide choice of styles to make a selection from.

 

The icing on the cake for the afternoon was to learn that one of the judges, Tom Dodd awarded Jill Baxter a silver medal for her print of ‘Stockings Laid Ready’

 

Gill Mackay  

(the images used in this competition will be posted here soon)