On Sunday 13th February the NCPF held its 2022 Annual Club Championships at Clara Vale Village Halland our club had entries in both PRINTS and PDI Sections. In each case this involved submitting 20 photos from our members and they were all rewarded when the results were announced, with Northallerton CC coming out on top in both Sections. Eleven clubs had entered the PRINT Section and nineteen the PDI Section.
In each section there have to be entries from at least 5 members, with no more than 4 from any one person. There can be no more than 5 Nature images in each section and in the PRINT Section each club is required to ensure that a minimum of 5 Monochrome and 5 Colour Images are included.
The panel of three Judges were Bill Broadley, from Blyth PS, Gerald Chamberin DPAGB EFIAP, from Morton PS, and Keith Snell LRPS EFIAP EPSA, from Keswick PS. Scoring was by automatic scoring machine with each judge scoring between 2 and 5 points each, making a maximum score of 15 markes per photograph. Historically a club tends to need an average of at least 12 points per photograph to be in with a chance winning a section.
The PDI Section was held first, and it was apparent, when our first 3 images scored 12, 13 and again 13, that we were going to be in the running. Obviously that level of scoring did not continue for all 20 images but two images did receive the maximum score of 15; “Snowy Owl Hunting” by John Webster ARPS MPAGB, (who also scored 14 for “Gannet Dispute”) and for “Stellars Eagle” which was by Miles Langthorne DPAGB APAGB. There were also scores of 13 for Sheila Coates LRPS EFIAP/b APSA DPAGB, Pauline Pentony ARPS AFIAP DPAGB, and John again. Our final score of 244 points put us in contention but the results were not announced at this stage.
The Prints Section followed after a short break and once again we got and 14 for our first 3 prints. Again two of our entries were awarded John Webster gaining them for “Diamond Beach” and Miles
Three more scores of 14 went to John and 13 points were awarded to Pauline Pentony. At the end of the Section we had scored a total of 249 points for the Prints Section.
It was now time for the results to be announced and it fell to NCPF President, Jim Welsh LRPS CPAGB to perform this task. Starting with the PDI Section, Gosforth CC were placed 3rd with 238 points, Saltburn PS 2nd with 242 points, which meant by just 2 points Northallerton CC were in 1st place. Moving on to the Prints Section he announced that Durham PS had been placed 3rd with 236 points, Gosforth CC 2nd with 247 points meaning that once again, by the tiny margin of 2 points, Northallerton CC had had won the Print Section as well.
As the first two clubs in each section are automatically selected to represent the NCPF at each of the PAGB National Club Championships (for Prints and for PDI), Northallerton CC will be invited to to go to
Warwick University in July of this year to compete in the PAGB PDI Club Championships and also in the PAGB Print Club Championship later in the year in October (venue tba). There has to be a huge thank you and congratulations to all our members who contributed in any way to this success, it is indeed something for the club to be proud of.
(February 2022)
This season it was Stokesley PS‘s turn to host the Annual Inter-Club Competition between our two clubs.Seven of our members travelled to Stokesley where the competition was held ‘in person’ at their club rooms at Stokesley Town Hall. After last year when Stokesley came top in what, due to Covid, was a PDI only competition, it was all change this time with Northallerton being being placed first in both Prints and Slides.
There were two sections, PRINTS and PDI and each club had submitted 15 photographs into each section. In the Prints Section it was a little disappointing that our club only received entries from 10 of our members, which meant five had two prints a piece in the section. In the PDI Section however we had just in excess of 15 entrants
so were able to enter no more than one image per member in this section. The Judge for the evening was Stuart Skelsey CPAGB AFIAP EPSA, from Whitley Bay PS.
The Prints section was held first, with the the Prints being displayed in screen. The Section started well with our first print, “Balance” by scoring 29 marks out of the maximum of 30. This was quickly John Webster ARPS MPAGB entitled “Barn Owl Hunting” scoring 30. to favour Northallerton and at the end of the section Northallerton had 396 points as against Stokesley’s 371.
We then moved on to the PDI Section, where the scores were somewhat closer than for the Prints. Our second PDI, “European Bee-eaters Taking Food Offering” by Patricia Kearton LRPS DPAGB, scored a maximum 30 marks. This put us in the lead but things got close with only 2 points between the clubs at one stage. In the end though, with our last image “Dust Rider” by Miles Langthorne DPAGB APAGB, scoring 29 marks, Northallerton finished up with a winning lead of 11 marks, having scored a total of 390 points to Stokesley’s 379.
Our thanks go to Stokesley PS for their hospitality and for creating a safe environment to hold the competition, to the Judge for a balanced and thoughtful critique of all 60 photographs he was presented with, and especially to all our members who contributed images for selection to represent the club.