SPS WIN PAGB PRINT CHAMPIONSHIPS 2003

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A Momentous Day.

Saturday 25th October will go down in the annals of Southport Photographic Society as a momentous day.
We took on the best clubs in the country and WON!

Deeside College at Connah's Quay was the setting for what was to prove to be a nail-biting event. Each of the photographic alliances (15 in all) sent their two best clubs plus the winners of last years competition meaning there were 33 of the best clubs from Great Britain competing for the title of Print Champions.

After the first round, in which we submitted 12 prints from 7 different members, we were in joint second place on 155 points with Solihull and Wigan 10. The leaders, South Shields, being only one point in front.
The prints are marked by three judges on a scoring machine and the maximum score is 15. The very first "15" of the day was achieved by our own Marco Pozzi with "Waiting". He was going to go on to achieve a string of 15's!

After the first round the top 8 are then invited to compete in the final. The rest having to "make do" with trying for the "Plate" competition. Our aim had been to get through to the final 8, something we had not done before. So we were patting ourselves on the back during the lunch break as well as nervously selecting our entry for the second and final round from the box of prints we had taken down.

This was no easy task. The rules are strict. No more than a certain number of nature and mono prints and the entry must include work from at least 5 different authors; coupled with the fact that only 4 of our prints from the first round had scored less than 13 meant we not only had an embarrassment of riches but we were having to set aside high scoring prints that in previous years would have been "dead certs".

The lunch break over, we retook our seats and as we scribbled down the scores in the semi-darkness it became apparent that the prints immediately following ours were from our old adversaries: Wigan 10 and that they were scoring less than us. Several of us were encouraged by this and secretly thought that if we didn't win we would have least have the satisfaction of beating the only other club from the L&CPU.

Speculation during the afternoon tea break was rife. We knew we had scored 195 but were unaware of the scores achieved by other clubs. After what seemed like an age when the raffle was drawn, we settled back to listen to first of all the individual awards. Marco was the recipient of one of the judges medals for his wonderful print: 'Portrait of a Marriage'.

Then as our pulses quickened we were read the club results in reverse order. By the time they had come to the final three, some of us could hardly bare to listen. And after reading the out the result for second place we knew Southport had done it!

Southport are the Print Champions of Great Britain 2003! Well done us!!! No one who was there will ever forget what a momentous day it had proved to be.
Kathryn.

Lunch break and it's 'all hands to the pumps.......'	.......as our second round entry has to be picked.......	.......this is a 'team effort'
Our External Comps. Sec. reads the rules, has lunch and thinks strategy - all at the same time!	A final check on our entry	Prints are put into order and then have to be logged and delivered to the organisers

All entries have to include; at least 5 Monochrome, at least 5 Colour, not more than
3 Natural History, not more than 4 per author and at least 5 authors

BELOW ARE ALL THE IMAGES IN OUR CHAMPIONSHIP WINNING PANEL

Images are in the order in which they were shown
on the day from No. 1 to No.15

THE WINNING TEAM