It was during a visit to Prestwich Co-op CC for a software seminar that we received the invitation to compete at this event. Prestwich wanted to organise a multi-club digital knockout and proceeded on the basis of inviting 14 clubs to compete against each other with teams of 10 images. It sounded good, so we accepted but unfortunately two clubs dropped out at the last minute and the competition ended up being fought out by 12 teams from around the Manchester area.
The judge was Colin Douglas from St Helens CC and after the obligatory initial run through the field it became fairly clear that (a) the field was of a very high quality and (b) there were a hell of a lot of nature shots in the field...particularly birds! One or two tongue-in-cheek comments were made about not liking bird shots, but a lot of them went a fair old way in the competition. Needless to say, we didn’t have any birds amongst our images and only one nature shot in the team!
The first round is normally where the bloodbath takes place and this proved to be the case with quite a few images leaving the competition at first sight. This isn’t to say they were bad images.....far from it, but the nature of the beast is to try and whittle the field down at a reasonable rate and therefore some butchery is required. After the first round, BDPS were one of only three clubs with all 10 images still in the competition and it looked ominous as those three clubs were BDPS, Bury PS and Bolton CC! Who would blink first?
In the second round it was almost tit for tat, with one image of the competition’s going out each time one of ours went, but after the second round Bury had taken a slender lead with Stockport PS coming into the frame. Both ourselves and Bolton CC lost six images in round two, with Bury losing one
The judge was Colin Douglas from St Helens CC and after the obligatory initial run through the field it became fairly clear that (a) the field was of a very high quality and (b) there were a hell of a lot of nature shots in the field...particularly birds! One or two tongue-in-cheek comments were made about not liking bird shots, but a lot of them went a fair old way in the competition. Needless to say, we didn’t have any birds amongst our images and only one nature shot in the team!
The first round is normally where the bloodbath takes place and this proved to be the case with quite a few images leaving the competition at first sight. This isn’t to say they were bad images.....far from it, but the nature of the beast is to try and whittle the field down at a reasonable rate and therefore some butchery is required. After the first round, BDPS were one of only three clubs with all 10 images still in the competition and it looked ominous as those three clubs were BDPS, Bury PS and Bolton CC! Who would blink first?
In the second round it was almost tit for tat, with one image of the competition’s going out each time one of ours went, but after the second round Bury had taken a slender lead with Stockport PS coming into the frame. Both ourselves and Bolton CC lost six images in round two, with Bury losing one
Bolton Digital Photographic Society
Prestwich Co-op CC
Multi-Club Digital Knockout
6th December 2011
Prestwich Co-op CC
Multi-Club Digital Knockout
6th December 2011
less....but round three saw all our remaining images through, with Bolton CC losing another two and Bury one. The advantage lay back with BDPS and Stockport were looking strong.
Round four was the decisive round. Bury lost a further image, as did Bolton CC but Stockport saw all of their four remaining images ejected from the competition in this round....and that proved terminal for any hopes they had of winning the competition.
Round five saw two excellent nature shots from Bury go out, leaving them with one remaining image in what proved to be “the final” round. Mark Power’s “Common Frog” – our sole nature image - went out at this stage, as did Brian Wilcox’s “In The Spotlight”, but
Round four was the decisive round. Bury lost a further image, as did Bolton CC but Stockport saw all of their four remaining images ejected from the competition in this round....and that proved terminal for any hopes they had of winning the competition.
Round five saw two excellent nature shots from Bury go out, leaving them with one remaining image in what proved to be “the final” round. Mark Power’s “Common Frog” – our sole nature image - went out at this stage, as did Brian Wilcox’s “In The Spotlight”, but
we still had two images into the final round of five images. The other two were by Bolton CC and Davyhulme CC.
So...on to “the final”. Five images were displayed all together for Colin to choose his top three. It seemed as though he’d already made up his mind because he fairly quickly dropped the images by Bury PS and Davyhulme CC, stating that he knew what his top three positions were. He then discussed the three remaining images in detail, before declaring Bolton CC bird image to have taken third place. BDPS had taken first and second place, but which image was which?? At this point is was clear that we’d taken the team title, but who was top dog on the day and what was our winning margin? Eventually, Colin revealed that the two images had caught his eye right from the very first round, but it was “Water Nymph” by Chris Carter that was in second spot and “Kitchen Sink Drama” by Gerry Gentry that was the overall winner. Congratulations to both of them. Each of them was awarded a prize by the organisers and the trophy was overflowing with chocolates when Mark Power went up to collect it.
The margin of victory was fairly wide when the dust had cleared and the results displayed on the screen. BDPS took first place with 39 pts, beating Bury PS into second place with 33 pts and Bolton CC taking third place with 29 pts.
Our thanks go to the judge, Colin Douglas, for his comments and efforts on the night. A huge thanks go to Prestwich CCC, for what was a very well organised competition and excellent evening’s entertainment – hard to tell in was their first! Also, a large pat on the back for Bury PS for their assistance in sorting out an emergency plea for substitute projection equipment after a major technical hitch with Prestwich’s set-up threatened to ruin the evening.
So...on to “the final”. Five images were displayed all together for Colin to choose his top three. It seemed as though he’d already made up his mind because he fairly quickly dropped the images by Bury PS and Davyhulme CC, stating that he knew what his top three positions were. He then discussed the three remaining images in detail, before declaring Bolton CC bird image to have taken third place. BDPS had taken first and second place, but which image was which?? At this point is was clear that we’d taken the team title, but who was top dog on the day and what was our winning margin? Eventually, Colin revealed that the two images had caught his eye right from the very first round, but it was “Water Nymph” by Chris Carter that was in second spot and “Kitchen Sink Drama” by Gerry Gentry that was the overall winner. Congratulations to both of them. Each of them was awarded a prize by the organisers and the trophy was overflowing with chocolates when Mark Power went up to collect it.
The margin of victory was fairly wide when the dust had cleared and the results displayed on the screen. BDPS took first place with 39 pts, beating Bury PS into second place with 33 pts and Bolton CC taking third place with 29 pts.
Our thanks go to the judge, Colin Douglas, for his comments and efforts on the night. A huge thanks go to Prestwich CCC, for what was a very well organised competition and excellent evening’s entertainment – hard to tell in was their first! Also, a large pat on the back for Bury PS for their assistance in sorting out an emergency plea for substitute projection equipment after a major technical hitch with Prestwich’s set-up threatened to ruin the evening.
Above and below right: Images from the team that took the trophy at Prestwich
We really enjoyed our trip over to Radcliffe and we look forward very much to defending our title next year.
