During the past six months we have welcomed two new clubs into our Federation – Boscombe CC and recently Lordshill CC.

Our second Inter Club Print Championship held in February, according to the three judges compared very favourably with other similar competitions where they had judged for other Federations. We had a small hiccup towards the end of the day when the computer broke down, but with manual scoring in place as a backup, we were able to continue. Southampton CC were the winners, closely followed by Ordnance Survey PS, so both clubs will represent the Federation at the PAGB event at Connahs Quay. Our thanks to Ian Bigg and his club, Highcliffe and Infinity CC for organising the day.

The Judging Workshop held on 19th March was very successful. It was a pleasure to see so many new faces eagerly waiting to be initiated into the secrets of judging. After Leo’s opening remarks, David Barton gave a presentation using a digital projector, outlining various technical aspects and how to judge the ‘rather odd’ peculiarities of the projected image that sometimes occur. Useful to all of us !!
Many potential judges enjoyed the round table discussions in preparation for their assessment. These will hopefully bring several new judges onto our ‘B’ list, which will help to maintain the numbers on our judging lists.
Sighs of relief and colour came back into a few cheeks at the end of the day. The venue proved to be ideal for the purpose. Thanks to Leo, David and the other established judges who assisted. One more plea:- If you want to attend such an event please don’t leave it to the last moment to let us know, as it was on the point of being cancelled once again.

The semi-finals went off OK, but not without incident. With all the marks for prints and slides flying around, the unlikely event of a tie occurring happened in the first semi final – not once but in both prints and slides. This means we will have three clubs in both sections on Finals Day. Thank you to Southampton CC and Newbury CC for hosting.

Two more Roll of Honour presentations have been made. I had great pleasure in presenting Dick White of Fareham & Portchester CC with his framed certificate. The other presentation was to Ron Knowles of Wimborne CC. Both recipients have, and are still performing sterling service to their clubs. Such people hold together the whole structure of club existence.

The redesigned Web-site is emerging, with many improvements having been made, and more pages in the process of being added. Many thanks to Trevor.

Jack Whitemore