The first surprise was that we had some empty seats. The expected influx of visitors did not materialise with only about six members of Chapel turning up (we had 17 members visit Wilmslow Guild for our battle with them the following evening).

The second surprise was that the judge was also conspicuous in his absence!

It was decided that as the full entry of 10 prints and 10 slides from each club had been selected and was available we should at least have the pleasure of viewing them. And as we had at least two reputable judges in our midst, one from each club, we should not have to view them in silence.

So it was that Chapel’s Tony Pioli commented on each of North Cheshire’s entry and our own Geoff Robinson did likewise with Chapel’s set. They both expressed a preference at the outset to avoid giving marks (so, unfortunately, Barry’s spreadsheet had been prepared in vain) but they agreed to select their favourite image.

The comments from both Tony and Geoff were highly constructive and informative and, of course, totally unbiased. It was more than pure coincidence that they chose each other’s images as the best of the sets. Theirs just happened to be the best on view.

Roger Dye in his vote of thanks expressed his admiration at the way our last-minute volunteer judges had risen to the occasion and given such a helpful commentary on an impressive set of images. He felt he had learnt a great deal more from this evening than that picked up from many a visiting judge. I’m sure many of us felt the same way.

Thanks to Tony and Geoff, who came in expectation of “a night off”, any embarrassment caused by a missing judge had been averted and the hastily re-arranged format for the event was judged to be a hit by all those present – as shown by the warmth of the applause at the end.

Should we re-arrange the battle and have an external judge mark the entry as originally intended? A show of hands confirmed unanimous disapproval of this suggestion.

Food for thought, indeed!

Tony Redford