A report by Barry Camera Club’s Geoff Fowler
Saturday 6th June saw Barry Camera Club host the Barrian Cup and Dave Cowdrey Trophy for the 14th time at the St. Francis Millenium Hall in Barry.
After an introduction by Barry Camera Club Chairman, Steve Durbin, the event was opened by the Mayor of the Vale of Glamorgan Council, Councillor Emlyn Williams.
Councillor Williams commented that it was nice to see some youthful faces in the audience and that he would like to see some a more positive view of young people as they always seemed to get a bad press.
The judge of the event, Graeme Hodgkiss ARPS DPAGB APAGB was introduced and seconded the Mayor’s opinion of young people and said that members of photographic clubs should encourage their children and grandchildren to take up photography or the artform could well die out at club level.
Twenty five camera clubs from around Wales and the West of England entered photographs into the Barrian Cup competition and around ninety people from the clubs turned up on the day to watch the judging.
As usual the standard of photography was very high but Neath and District Camera Club took an early lead, scoring maximum points with their first two pictures, “Tree Birds” and “Jenna by the River”. Llanelli was not far behind, though, their first picture, “First Snow” scoring maximum and their second “Old Friends” just one point under maximum.
After the break the other clubs started to fight back with some consistently good pictures and towards the finish it started to get very close with three or four clubs in the running.
The competition was finally decided by the last-but-one picture to be judged, with Llanelli just edging out Gwynfa by 87 points to 86. Neath and District was third with 82 points and Backwell Camera Club was fourth with 81 points.
With the winner of the Barrian Cup having been decided, Graeme Hodgkiss went on to judge the Dave Cowdrey Trophy. He decided on the picture that had given Neath and District maximum points early on in the Barrian Cup competition, “Tree Birds” by Terry Goss, which he had said ‘oozed quality’.
The trophies were presented by the Mayor, Councillor Emlyn Williams and the Mayoress, Mrs Joan Williams. Club Secretary Arthur Mallet accepted the Barrian Cup on behalf of the Llanelli Photographic Society.
The pictures that scored the maximum 20 points in the competition were:
- Tree Birds – Neath and District P.S.
- Jenna by the River – Neath and District P.S.
- Jockeying for Position – Gwynfa C.C.
- Heron at Forest Farm – Cardiff C.C.
- Enigma – Cardiff C.C.
- I Wonder if She’ll Come – Rhondda C.C.
- The Kitchen – Backwell C.C.
- First Snow – Llanelli P.S.