EHHPS Visit to Cheltenham 2024: Amanda Wright Reports

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What a fantastic trip we had to beautiful Cheltenham for our second “Battle” (their term for external competitions), hosted by our good friend, EHHPS member and CCC Chairman John Clare. Our first stop was the very lovely Waterperry Gardens, just outside Oxford which kept us occupied for a couple of hours, then in the evening John and his wife Maxine generously hosted Paul, Kris, Ania and myself with a fabulous evening meal.

On Tuesday John had meticulously planned a day out for us all on some very fine steam trains, having previously recce’d the route from Cheltenham Racetrack Station to Broadway Station to make sure everything ran smoothly and we were able to get the most out of the day which we certainly did. One member of CCC Andy, even turned up in costume which led to some very interesting and amusing photo shoots, with the guards and firemen taking in the “paparazzi’ style spirit and happily posing for us, seemingly enjoying the attention. Expect a lot of train themed images to come.

After a fabulous Thai meal at The Giggling Squid it was time for battle to commence. The evening was judged for us by the very confident and popular Louise Hill MPAGB of the infamous Smethwick PS (check out their website smethwickps.co.uk) who always do very well in National Competitions. It very quickly became apparent that her preferred style of image was grungy and gritty portraits and birds and that a keyline was required on all images regardless of whether there were dark edges or not - a practice we ditched as a Federation many years ago as it was considered dated. Her scores were, however, very evenly balanced as she awarded 5 x 15’s, 7 x 16’s, 7 x 17’s, 9 x 18’s, 6 x 19’s and 6 x 20’s. Sadly though all 6 20’s went to CCC!

Our top scorers on the night were with 19 were:

  • A Moment of Peace by Annie Hackett

  • An Anxious Wait by Mike Lloyd

  • Catherine Wheel by Paul Mason

  • Lady of The Manor by Paul Mason

And with 18

  • Cloud Forest by Annie Hackett

  • On Pointe by Dennis Durack

  • It’s About Time by Emmanuel

  • Homage To It by Emmanuel

  • Red Kite by Rick Beresford (Rick I checked out Louise’s Gallery where she has a red kite, yours is better I think)

  • The Sweet Spot by Rick Beresford

Well done all

Final Scores were

  • CCC 358

  • EHHPS 344

We spent Wednesday exploring Cheltenham, mooching around the antiques and a favourite gift shop in Winchcombe and finally enjoying an outdoor pub lunch at The Hollow Bottom in Guiting Power. What’s not to like?

Hopefully more EHHPS members will be able to make it next year 😃

(Amanda Wright)