Well I don’t know when I’ve experienced a week like we’ve just had, a roller-coaster ride in every sense of the word.
You will have already seen the blogs from Graham and Rob but I felt I had to add my two penn’orth.
Saturday – the L&CPU PDI Knock Outs at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk. In the surroundings of the brand new lecture theatre we came 3rd behind Wigan 10 and Chorley and secured our return to the PAGB PDI Competition at Warwick in July – Success No. 1
Sunday – The L&CPU Print Knock Outs at the same venue but a different hall – we came 5th, but 3rd overall when the scores had been aggregated. and secured our return to Ormskirk and inclusion in the PAGB Print Competition in November – Success No. 2
Monday – was a day to site back and ponder the days ahead and weekend just past.
Tuesday – We found out that we were the 8th best club in the PAGB Cup with Paul Matthews, Jackie Robinson and Rob Hockney all having individual awards. ‘Quality will out’ they say and so it has, another great achievement – well done everyone whose images appeared. Add to that Jon Allanson had his image of pelicans as the L&CPU image of the week on the home page – well done Jon!
Wednesday – the Exhibition was excellently assembled by a dedicated team from the club while the wind got stronger and stronger through the day. The evening brought yet another bout of extreme weather to herald the start of the North Cheshire Challenges Print Competition as it had done last year. Again, like last year, the Judge was unable to attend but unlike last year we had no-one to step into the breach as Christine Widdall kindly had. So what to do? Step in Graham – he still had his coat on when he was asked to judge the compeititon, a nerve-jangling task when you know you’re going to do it – but worse when it comes as a complete surprise. But, being the trooper that he is, he agreed and carried it off in professional style – well done Graham and thanks. The downside of this was that North Cheshire had to withdraw its entire entry from the competition, which was a decision in the Poisoned Chalice league. The L&CPU President Henry Mullarkey officially opened the Exhibition and the competition was off and running! Wigan 10 won by one solitary point with Chorley and Chapel joint 2nd and Southport 3rd after a hard fought battle. Henry returned to the microphone to praise our club for having taken on the task of judging. All-in-all a fine evening.
Thursday – this was more like it, the hall was full and the judge, Malcolm Kus, had arrived. And before you knew it Wigan 10 had won by one point again! This time with Chorley 2nd, Crewe 3rd and NCPS 4th (by just 6 points). We didn’t win, sadly, but I think that the results here and at Ormskirk just go to show that we are in top the echelon of the L&CPU rankings and not far behind Wigan 10 who are in the top echelon nationally and internationally, so I view this is a great improvement thanks to all of the hard work put in by our workers.
As for the Exhibition itself – what a belter, a fantastic entry from so many of you and of a quality that really impressed our visitors. 41 members entered prints – one of the largest entries in recent years! So thank you everyone for working so hard, and if we keep this form we might just get better known on the national circuit too!
Praise is also due to Bill Chadband, Tony and Peter Redford and everyone who has been involved in the setting up/taking down/making tea/collecting money/co-ordinating the raffle/sorting the cups and awards/running the software/announcing the images/handling the prints and generally being there for the club when needed. I’m sure I speak for all club members when I say Thanks to you all for sparing your time and efforts for us.
Anyway tonight is the final evening of the exhibition where we can laugh about the happenings of the past 7 days and enjoy the meal and Tony’s (always entertaining) entertainment. We’re worth it…
Danny (please excuse bad grammar, sketchy information and omissions – I’ve been compiling this whilst working on ‘official work’)
