The National DPI Championships at Warwick

Gwynfa had a very good day at this National event at Warwick. 37 clubs competed made up of two clubs from every UK photographic federation plus the clubs who competed in last year's final. In short we were up against 36 of the best clubs in the country. For those of you who don't know, each club enters eight photographs for round 1 and eight different photos for round two. These are scored out of 15 (by three judges who can scored up to 5 points for each photo). After the first two rounds the top eight clubs proceed to the final (where they need a further 20 photos each) and the remainder proceed to the Plate final (another eight photos each). Gwynfa has competed twice in recent times but has never made it into the top 30. This year we did considerably better!

At the end of round 1 we were in 21st place having scored 86 points. (The best score in round 1 was 101 points). However, armed with the knowledge of what the judges had liked in round one, we were able to tailor our selection of eight photos for the second round and we scored 94 points (the best score in the round was 107 points). This gave us an aggregate score of 180 points which saw us finish overall in 15th place. In the past we have been either 32nd or 33rd. This made us top placed Welsh club over Tenby, Dwyfor and Beaumaris/Menai Bridge.

The score of 180 wasn't enough to get us in the main final but we were only 10 points short over 16 photographs. In the Plate final the remaining 29 clubs each entered a further 8 photographs, four of them new. Our eight scored a very 99 points which was enough to see us in joint fifth place. The plate winners were Worksop with 104 points so we were just five points off the pace. Again, we were top placed of the four Welsh clubs in the plate. Our best score of the day was 'Low Flying Zap Cat' byAllan Squires which scored 13 points in round two and 14 points in the plate. Two other photos got 13 points: 'Stormy Waters' by Alan Shepherd (in the plate final) and 'Dipper on Pool' by Alec Stewart (in round two and the plate). A lot of our photos scored twelve points (see below).

After the plate the top eight clubs contested the final round with 20 photographs each. At the end Wigan 10, the winners of the last few events, were beatedn by a single point by a jubilant Smethwick Photographic Society. 

Here is a full list of Gwynfa scores. (Note, we used 21 of our bank of 40 photographs. Well done to everyone who had a photo selected).

TITLE	PHOTOGRAPHER	R1	R2	R3
SHORT EARED OWL	STEVE LITTLEWOOD	11
LOVE IS	LEIGH WOOLFORD	12		12
STORMY WATERS	ALAN SHEPHERD	12		13
LION	STEVE LITTLEWOOD	11
SPEED YOUR JOURNEY	ALAN SHEPHERD	9
CARDIFF SUBWAY	ALEC STEWART	11
BABY BLUES	DICK KNILL	9
SACRIFICIAL LAMB	MARK MUMFORD	11
LOW FLYING ZAP CAT	ALLAN SQUIRES		13	14
DIPPER ON POOL	ALEC STEWART		13	13
COMMON BLUE & HOVERFLY	ALEC STEWART		12
WATER RAIL ON ICE	ALEC STEWART			12
PETRIFIED TREES, MAMMOTH	BRIAN SEWELL		12
NEVER TOO OLD TO ROCK	LEIGH WOOLFORD			12
SNOWED IN	LEIGH WOOLFORD		12
THE DOLLS HOUSE	MARK MUMFORD		12
MACKEREL SKY	MARK MUMFORD		9
CRUCIFIXION	MARK MUMFORD			12
I DON'T WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL	NICK JENKINS			11
I NEED MUM	PHILIPPA WOOD		11
	TOTAL	86	94	99