Gwynfa led the 2010 Ace of Clubs from start to finish to win the trophy for the first time.
Fifteen clubs took part and the esteemed Judges were Tony Byram LRPS, DPAGB, AWPF; Barry Mead FRPS, EFIAP, MPAGB; and Peter Gennard MFIAP, EFIAP/p. The competition is run on similar lines to the PAGB National Projected Image Championship at Warwick with each club allowed a bank of thirty photographs. The top eight clubs from rounds 1 and 2 (ten photographs per club) qualify for the Final (Round 3) and the remaining clubs take part in the Plate competition. The top two clubs in the Final are invited to represent the WPF at the Warwick event in July. For scoring each judge has a keypad and can score between 1 and 5 points for a photograph (so the best score that can be achieved is 15). No marks of 15 were awarded this year but there were several marks of 14, including three from Gwynfa photographers. This honour was shared between Alec Stewart and Mark Mumford. The lowest mark of the day was 7.
After round one (ten photos per club) Gwynfa led (with 112 marks) from Neath (111), Inn Focus (111), Bridgend (110) and Cardiff (109). The second round (a further ten photos per club) saw a major fightback by 2009 winners Tenby who had finished round one on 100 points. However Gwynfa managed to cling onto the lead and the eight clubs who progressed to the final round were Gwynfa (227), Tenby (224), Neath (223), Bridgend (218), Inn Focus (216), Cardiff (216), The Vale (213) and Rhondda (213). All scores were then zeroed for the Plate and the Final.
Seven clubs contested a very high quality Plate round with each club entering a futher eight photographs from their bank of 30. Swansea, Ebbw Vale and Port Talbot finished in a three way tie for first place. Swansea were awarded the Plate because they had the highest single mark of the tied clubs.
In the ‘top eight’ final round no previous scores are kept. The clubs each enter 15 images from their bank of 30 and tactics come in to play based on the style of judging in the early rounds. (For example, it was not a good day for Natural History work). Also some clubs may have held back photographs so as to present the judges with new work. Others may use just their best scores from the previous rounds. Gwynfa opted to present five new photographs alongside our ten best scorers so far. This means we used 25 of our 30 available photographs.
All ended well when we achieve our first ever win in this competition (after numerous second places). The final positions were:
Gwynfa (180); Tenby (174); The Vale (171); Inn Focus (169); Bridgend (168); Cardiff (168); Neath (167) and Rhondda (166)
The individual Gwynfa Scores can be found HERE. Well done to everyone selected whether your photographs were used or not.
