It proved to be a really good evening for Gwynfa at the 2018 RGB battle held at Rhondda Camera Club on 12th March. The final scores were Gwynfa 228, Barry 217 and Rhondda 216.

Judge Roy Thomas awarded no less than five of our photographs the maximum 20 points and none of our entries scored less than 17.

Thanks to all those who attended the evening and special thanks to Rhondda for their warm welcome and to Roy Thomas for his considered and interesting comments..

Also, congratulations to all photographers who were selected.

Here are the results from the 2019 WPF Memorial Trophies. The judge was Martin Fry of Cheltenham who did an excellent job.

Past President’s Memorial Trophy – Colour Prints
1st= Bridgend & District (74)
1st= Inn Focus (74)
3rd  Gwynfa (73)
4th  Kidwelly (69)

Gwyn Morgan Trophy for a set of four Mono Prints (only three places awarded).
1st   Inn Focus
2nd  Abergavenny
3rd Swansea

Walter Morgan Trophy for PDI images
1st Inn Focus (75)
2nd Western Valley (71)
3rd Afan Nedd (70)
4th Gwynfa (69)

Gwynfa finished second in the 2018 Rhondda battle which was judged by Tony Byram ARPS AWPF DPAGB EFIAP of Kingswood PS.

The final placings were: Rhondda (109), Gwynfa (105), Pyle & Porthcawl (105), Afan Nedd (103), Bridgend (103), Cyrmu Mono (101), Port Talbot (99), Western Valley (95) and Aberdare (90).

On Monday, October 1st at Bridgend Camera Club we took part in the Bridgend 12-way battle. It is ab unique battle in that clubs can get promoted and relegated from the event.

Gwynfa finished third behind Inn Focus and Tenby and so we qualify to also take part next year.

Hairy Dragonfly on Horsetail by Rob Beynon, Walking Through the Graveyard by Chris Tidman, Godafoss Sunset by Leigh Woolford, Bamburgh Beach by Heidi Stewart and The Seafarer by Lynda Beynon.

Thanks to Allan Squires and Dave Lingham for selecting the photos.

The Barrian Cup was won by The Inn Focus Group (95 points) with Tenby second (92 points) and Gwynfa third (88 points).

Angela De Roy Jones of Gwent won the Dave Cowdrey Trophy for Best Landscape/Seascape with Deganwy Winter Walk and Coltrane Koh won the inaugural Mike Lewis Trophy for the Best Print in Competition with Settle Down.

The full score sheet can be seen here and the award winning photographs can be seen on the WPF website here.

At the annual Rhondda/Gwynfa/Barry battle, hosted this year by Gwynfa, the results were as follows:

1st – Gwynfa – 213 points
2nd – Rhondda – 204 points
3rd – Barry – 193 points

Best Print went to ‘The Historian’ by David Norton of the Rhondda and Best DPI went to ‘Onlooker’ by Barbra Archdale-Smith of Barry.

The judge was Fred Davies of Cardiff who did an excellent job of assessing the photographs.

The full scoresheet can be seen here.

After a rather remarkable evening of top quality photography and high scoring Gwynfa finished second to worthy winners, the Rhondda in the 2018 Vale 7-way battle. Gwynfa’s scores were as follows:

Colour Prints
20    Hairy Dragonfly on Horsetail by Rob Beynon
20    Mirage Fighter Jets by Steve Littlewood
20    Hard Times by Gwynfryn Jones
20    The Apple Woman by Gwynfryn Jones

Monochrome Prints
19    Last Light by Dave Lingham
20    Isolation (No. 1) by Leigh Woolford
18    Into The Light by Alan Stokes
18    Menno by Leigh Woolford

Dropping just 5 points from a possible 160 would be hard to beat you might think. But no. Rhondda dropped just three points and scored 20 a remarkable six times and also had a 19 and an 18 to pip us by two points. Scoring was high across the board too. Judge Brian Swinyard MA(Photo), ARPS, EFIAP/b, DPAGB, BPE3*, PPSA gave 24 scores of 20 from the 56 prints entered!

Final Scores were: Rhondda 157, Gwynfa 155, The Vale 153, Pyle & Porthcawl 150, Bridgend 148, Morriston 145 and Barry 137.

Best Monochrome Print went to Richard Crays of Pyle and Porthcawl for “Concrete Titanic” and Best Colour Print went to Gwynfryn Jones of Gwynfa for ‘The Apple Woman’.

As usual our hosts at the Vale did a superb job or organising the competition and welcoming (and feeding) their visitors and everyone enjoyed an evening of terrific photography.

Seven of the eight Gwynfa entries can be seen below. Sadly we don’t yet have a digital version of Into The Light by Alan Stokes.