NCPS News

Perhaps I should have seen the signs early in the saga of the 2005 Monochrome Print Competition run by Oldham CC! When the Selection Committee came to choose our entry, a certain ambiguity in the documentation was noticed, and Tony Redford checked by telephone to find that we had to submit our prints in advance (unlike previous years) and in only two days time. As by then the majority of the Society would have decamped to Keswick, your Competition Secretary found himself left with the job of getting the prints to Oldham — well it should have been his job anyway. A 24 hour extension of the deadline having been negotiated, it was agreed that I should phone again on Saturday morning to agree the actual time of delivery. Now the paperwork gave two telephone numbers, both mobiles and neither was answered. An internet mapping search for the address I had to find revealed that no such address existed! After a Saturday morning of detective work using on-line resources and a very old paper copy of the North Manchester Telephone Directory a landline number and a real existing address were found. However, it transpired that I was not to go to that address but the prints were passed from the boot of one car to the boot of another in an quiet road in an obscure factory estate in Oldham - all rather like something from a spy novel. And to cap it all, a navigation error resulted in your Competition Secretary completing a circumnavigation of Greater Manchester using the M60!

The day before the competition I received a telephone call from the organisers requesting, very nicely, that as NCPS won in 2004 would I please bring the trophy with me. This left your Competition Secretary somewhat nonplussed. I was away on holiday at the time of the 2004 event had not then even volunteered (foolishly?) to become Competition Secretary. I had no memory of such a pot or shield (not that my memory is to be trusted in any case). Further detective work ensued and out came the pile of old editions of Focus I had just filed away. I soon found that indeed we had been the 2004 winners and should have had a trophy. But said trophy had not been returned, none of the 2004 entrants would own up to winning in 2003, and the organisers could not remember — so we did not get a trophy. This information was relayed back to a not very happy Oldham CC official.

On the evening of the competition we set off in plenty of time — Gordon Robson being kind enough to take me, my post-operative driving ban still being in force. A small navigation error, compounded by the complete absence of signs saying anything more helpful than ‘No Entry’, together with the complete lack of knowledge in anyone we asked (of the location of the Lifelong Learning Centre in Union Street) meant that we were rather late in our arrival at said building. We found the door locked and the Porters Lodge empty. However, some distant authority eventually released the electric lock and we got into the competition well after judging started — Jon Allanson does not suffer from these navigational problems and had been there all the time.

We found the judge, Andrew Rothery from Halifax, was judging the complete entry of each club in turn (no random order or anonymous presentation). We sat though an alphabetic progression of four clubs up to Wilmslow Guild convinced that we had missed the most important item of the evening. However the alphabetic progression did not continue and we did hear the comments on our own entry. The judge was awarding marks from 9 to 14 leaving us somewhat concerned until we realised that he was marking out of 15 and intended to award only one 15 to his choice as best print. In reality the standard was rather variable and a wider spread of marks could have been justified. Overall presentation was included in the judging and in three cases the print was literally falling off its mounting! He stated his lack of appreciation of church interiors and of ‘artistically processed’ rather than straight photograph prints — unfortunate for us as our varied entry included three such. Any significant areas of either highlight or shadow without discernible detail in a print resulted in a reduced mark. The judge also criticised the framing of a large proportion of the entry both suggesting areas be cropped out and requiring more space around some features. Sharpening also warranted his criticism, he pointed out images that had been sharpened overall giving unnaturally sharp distant background features which looked unreal and lacked a feeling of depth. The colour and proportion of the mount also lead to penalisation in several cases.

We finally heard comments on our entry, by now somewhat truncated, as ‘Lifelong Learning’ in Oldham ceases at 9.30pm, and that time had already passed. We came, in the end, seventh out of nine clubs entering (full results below). A Mark of 14 was awarded to a total of 22 prints in the competition, 2 of which were from NCPS. No trophy was mentioned and from discreet private enquiries we learned that it is still missing!

There was no tea break, or social part to the evening, which I missed. We gathered up our prints and score sheet and returned home breaking the record by managing without navigational mishap!

Club Results

1st Nantwich CC 102

2nd equal Accrington PS 101

Leyland PS 101

4 Lytham PS 100

5 Wilmslow Guild 99

6 Rochdale PS 98

7 NCPS 93

8 Oldham CC 92

9 Prestwich Coop CC 90

NCPS Individual Scores (Mark out of 15)

Spanish Shades and Shadows Jill Hargreaves 12

On Parade, Prague Colin Pickles 11

The Cloister, Laycock Abbey Jon Allanson 10

A Sense of Scale Gordon Robson 11

Lady Chapel, Gloucester Cathedral Gerald Hallworth 12

Sacrifice Tony Redford 14

The Walkway Brian Turnbull 14

Lined Up Bill Chadband 9

Home News News Index Report About us Syllabus Exhibition Results Service Newsletter Galleries Links		Oldham CC Monochrome Print Competition 2005
		Perhaps I should have seen the signs early in the saga of the 2005 Monochrome Print Competition run by Oldham CC! When the Selection Committee came to choose our entry, a certain ambiguity in the documentation was noticed, and Tony Redford checked by telephone to find that we had to submit our prints in advance (unlike previous years) and in only two days time. As by then the majority of the Society would have decamped to Keswick, your Competition Secretary found himself left with the job of getting the prints to Oldham — well it should have been his job anyway. A 24 hour extension of the deadline having been negotiated, it was agreed that I should phone again on Saturday morning to agree the actual time of delivery. Now the paperwork gave two telephone numbers, both mobiles and neither was answered. An internet mapping search for the address I had to find revealed that no such address existed! After a Saturday morning of detective work using on-line resources and a very old paper copy of the North Manchester Telephone Directory a landline number and a real existing address were found. However, it transpired that I was not to go to that address but the prints were passed from the boot of one car to the boot of another in an quiet road in an obscure factory estate in Oldham - all rather like something from a spy novel. And to cap it all, a navigation error resulted in your Competition Secretary completing a circumnavigation of Greater Manchester using the M60! The day before the competition I received a telephone call from the organisers requesting, very nicely, that as NCPS won in 2004 would I please bring the trophy with me. This left your Competition Secretary somewhat nonplussed. I was away on holiday at the time of the 2004 event had not then even volunteered (foolishly?) to become Competition Secretary. I had no memory of such a pot or shield (not that my memory is to be trusted in any case). Further detective work ensued and out came the pile of old editions of Focus I had just filed away. I soon found that indeed we had been the 2004 winners and should have had a trophy. But said trophy had not been returned, none of the 2004 entrants would own up to winning in 2003, and the organisers could not remember — so we did not get a trophy. This information was relayed back to a not very happy Oldham CC official. On the evening of the competition we set off in plenty of time — Gordon Robson being kind enough to take me, my post-operative driving ban still being in force. A small navigation error, compounded by the complete absence of signs saying anything more helpful than ‘No Entry’, together with the complete lack of knowledge in anyone we asked (of the location of the Lifelong Learning Centre in Union Street) meant that we were rather late in our arrival at said building. We found the door locked and the Porters Lodge empty. However, some distant authority eventually released the electric lock and we got into the competition well after judging started — Jon Allanson does not suffer from these navigational problems and had been there all the time. We found the judge, Andrew Rothery from Halifax, was judging the complete entry of each club in turn (no random order or anonymous presentation). We sat though an alphabetic progression of four clubs up to Wilmslow Guild convinced that we had missed the most important item of the evening. However the alphabetic progression did not continue and we did hear the comments on our own entry. The judge was awarding marks from 9 to 14 leaving us somewhat concerned until we realised that he was marking out of 15 and intended to award only one 15 to his choice as best print. In reality the standard was rather variable and a wider spread of marks could have been justified. Overall presentation was included in the judging and in three cases the print was literally falling off its mounting! He stated his lack of appreciation of church interiors and of ‘artistically processed’ rather than straight photograph prints — unfortunate for us as our varied entry included three such. Any significant areas of either highlight or shadow without discernible detail in a print resulted in a reduced mark. The judge also criticised the framing of a large proportion of the entry both suggesting areas be cropped out and requiring more space around some features. Sharpening also warranted his criticism, he pointed out images that had been sharpened overall giving unnaturally sharp distant background features which looked unreal and lacked a feeling of depth. The colour and proportion of the mount also lead to penalisation in several cases. We finally heard comments on our entry, by now somewhat truncated, as ‘Lifelong Learning’ in Oldham ceases at 9.30pm, and that time had already passed. We came, in the end, seventh out of nine clubs entering (full results below). A Mark of 14 was awarded to a total of 22 prints in the competition, 2 of which were from NCPS. No trophy was mentioned and from discreet private enquiries we learned that it is still missing! There was no tea break, or social part to the evening, which I missed. We gathered up our prints and score sheet and returned home breaking the record by managing without navigational mishap! Roger Dye Club Results 1st Nantwich CC 102 2nd equal Accrington PS 101 Leyland PS 101 4 Lytham PS 100 5 Wilmslow Guild 99 6 Rochdale PS 98 7 NCPS 93 8 Oldham CC 92 9 Prestwich Coop CC 90 NCPS Individual Scores (Mark out of 15) Spanish Shades and Shadows Jill Hargreaves 12 On Parade, Prague Colin Pickles 11 The Cloister, Laycock Abbey Jon Allanson 10 A Sense of Scale Gordon Robson 11 Lady Chapel, Gloucester Cathedral Gerald Hallworth 12 Sacrifice Tony Redford 14 The Walkway Brian Turnbull 14 Lined Up Bill Chadband 9
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