The Ted Colman Cup was held on the 17th Sept between 16 clubs from the Lancashire & Cheshire PU, Yorkshire PU and North Wales federations. It’s an interesting competition, requiring a club to enter 13 images. Four images are entered into each of the first two rounds and the lowest scoring 2 clubs by are eliminated in each of those rounds. If your club has survived at this point, it then competes in the third round, when only the top two clubs in that round go through to the final (all other marks are now discarded). On this occasion there was a tie for second place in the third round, so three clubs went forward to the final. The final is a sudden death round, when each club enters its last image and the judge picks a winner.
The competition is hosted by Rochdale DCC and this year’s judge was the very able and very popular David Gibbins from Beeston, Nottinghamshire, joining us via a zoom link. Dave did a brilliant job of appraising and marking the work in his usual positive and likeable style.
Below is our first round with scores, after which we were in first place:
Brad Anderson Hurdles by Brianna Gilligan 19
Intense by Christine Widdall 19
Mating Scathophagae by Andrea Wilson 20
Sam Talbot Plant And Take Off by Eddie Leach 20
Below is our second round with scores. In this round we were in second place, one point behind the leader.
225 Airborne by Brianna Gilligan 20
A Night In The Abbey by Gill Brett 20
Gyr falcon with prey by Pat Noon 18
Fig Bowl by Gary Waidson 17
This is our third round with scores. In this round we were placed first.
Warrior Monk by Christine Widdall 19
Mating Blowflies by Gill Brett 18
Girl with Finch by Christine Widdall 20
Jack Rowbotham Right Cross by Eddie Leach 20
At this point, were were the club with the highest aggregate score and, if that was how the competition works, we would have won, but it doesn’t work like that. All previous scores are now void and the only thing that matters is that the one image that the judge selects as his winner in the sudden death final, choosing from one image per club. We were up against an image from Chorley and one from Evolve.
Some have argued that it isn’t fair that a club with the highest score isn’t the winner; it just comes down to the one last image, but like it or not, that’s how this works. We won under these rules the last two times we entered, so have no cause for complaint. In fact, it was a super evening of excellent images and appraisals and it just happens that, this time, the judge chose the Chorley image. So, Oldham PS, a big pat on the back for doing so well, finishing in a very creditable second place and a big thank you to one of our favourite judges; also congratulations to Chorley for their win and to and Evolve for making it to the final.
This was our final image, Thierry Kerr over the last, score 19.
