26 NCPS members and followers ensured another good Weekend in Lakes for our annual battle with the Northerners. And the Derwentwater Hotel again gave us good service .And the weather was mild and occasionally sunny. Richard Scaife had proposed a suitable Saturday trip from the hotel. We duly paid our £5.70 per person for the anti-clockwise boat trip which would take us 3/4 of the way around the Lake before alighting to walk the last quarter ourselves. (The complete circular trip was £6.90) But the boat was full! So we waited! Eventually the Clockwise boat arrived and we managed to get on board. But of course we now travelled a quarter of the Lake (and wiser travellers paid only £2.90 for the same trip). So now we understood why Richard Scaife failed to make the trip to the Lakes this year! Jack Bamford had agreed to take Richard’s place, but Jack too mysteriously disappeared (claiming he had to rush home to let his daughter into the house !!!)

What with stopping to talk to strangers about their digital equipment, or simply stopping to compose images, the group quickly split up, finally to amalgamate again at the Keswick landing stage. After a coffee we joined the anticlockwise boat for the short trip back to our starting point. John Garner had managed to sweet-talk the ticket issuer to counter-sign his ticket for a free journey back. The rest of us announced that we were “with John” and simply stared ahead when the ticket man tried to interrogate us.

Jack magically re-appeared in time to open up the Hall at 3.00pm and the NCPS coffee contingent set about putting out cups for the pre-competition refreshments. Richard Spiers was the popular judge (and, as is not generally known) is the owner of the world’s biggest joke book. Looking at a Zebra image during the competition he turned to the ladies in the audience and asked if they realized that Ze -bras are 26 times as large as A-bras? Richard should shortly be hearing from the Federation of Morris Dancers’ for his scurrilous comment about why Morris dancers wear Bells on their legs. We hope that he will not be wearing the footwear devised by the Frenchman Phillipe Phillop when the Morris dancer with the big stick reaches him! Nevertheless the audience were appreciative of Richard’s positive comments as he picked his way through a pile of top quality prints. The scores at the end of an enjoyable afternoon were as follows:

Dumfries CC 265

West Cumbria PG 265

Carluke PS 263

Keswick CC 259

S. Manchester PS 251

Hartlepool P & DG 246

NCPS 245

Tyneside Digital IG 238

The prints were again laid out in club order for the audience to get a closer look at them, whilst they enjoyed another round of refreshments. Eventually NCPS returned to the Derwentwater for our, now traditional, Saturday evening meal together. We were pleased that the judge could join us. All talk of sacking the NCPS selection committee was lost in the general merriment.

The following members came with their wives Martin Currie, Anthony Rosevere, Bill Chadband, John Bawden, Alan Wild, Dave Akers, John Garner, Also spotted were Frank & Marjorie Hutchinson, Gordon & Joyce Robson, Tony & Dorothy Redford, Joyce Streets and Hugh Oldham, Brian Turnbull and Hilary, Colin Pickles and Barry Pearson,

Bill Chadband