INTO THE UNKNOWN

PAGB CUP 2011

Having won the Ross Cup in 2010 the club had the honour of representing Kent, along with Eastbourne Photographic Society, in the national PAGB print competition held at Connah’s Quay in Flintshire, North Wales.

With our committee having spent what seemed like a lifetime deliberating over which prints to take with us our four intrepid members duly made their way to Flintshire bearing our entry.

For those that haven’t ever been I’ll give a quick explanation of the competition.

With thirty six clubs showing twelve prints each in the first round there isn’t long for the judges to look at the prints. Each one is on a lightbox in front of a panel of three judges for less than twenty seconds while simultaneously being displayed on a screen for the audience to view. Each judge secretly awards up to five marks to each print.

At the end of the first round the top eight, or because of a tie this year, nine, clubs go forward to the final, with the rest being entered in the plate competition.

In the final the clubs enter fifteen prints and in the plate competition five prints. There are several rules about what can be entered in each round.

In the first part of the competition we came 20th which meant that we would be entered in the plate competition.

The top 9 clubs were then entered in the Championship Trophy while the rest were entered into the plate competition. Our representatives then had one hour to grab a bite to eat and select our five prints for the competition.

Looking around they realised that they hadn’t fully grasped the concept of an unlimited ‘bank’. While we had already chosen the prints for the plate while back in Dover, other clubs had large boxes of prints from which to choose. If during the first round they had spotted a trend for say sport pictures to do well then they chose sport pictures as their additional prints for round two. Something to remember should we ever be that way again.

In the event we finished equal eleventh out of twenty seven clubs in the plate competition. The highlight for the club was Mik Jones’ photograph of a yawning fox, ‘Life’s a Yawn’, which scored fourteen in each competition.

Congatulations to Mik!

This was the first time that we had entered the competition and it was a very educational day. We would welcome the chance to enter again with the knowledge that was gained on the day.