The first of the BPE Open competititons of 2005 was the Clay Cross National Exhibition of Colour Transparencies. Four SLIC members had entries accepted. They were: Chris Widdall with Dash, Maureen Glynn with Below Stairs, Norman Piper with All Bitter & Twisted and Sheila Goodyear with Am I Ready to Party? and Arctic Explorers.

The February meeting saw the fourth and final Quarterly competition in the SLIC year. The judge was Ian Aldcroft, from Chorley, who stepped in at very short notice when Ian Little, from Southport, who was to have been the judge, was taken ill.

Six prints gained 20 marks and the judge's bonus points went to On The Tiles by Chris Widdall. The other five prints with 20 marks were: Retrospection by Maureen Glynn, Evening Flight by Mike Lawrence, Les Trois Soeurs by Norman Piper, Gateway to the Peak by Chris Widdall and Isolation also by Chris.

The total scores over the 4 Quarterlies of 2004 - 2005 make Chris Widdall our overall winner with 240 points and followed, in second place, by Mike Lawrence. Congratulations to both members.

North Cheshire PS opened their Annual Exhibition on Wednesday 9th February and also held their annual Digital Print Competition on that evening. This competition has been running since 1998 and seems to become more successful with each passing year. 25 clubs entered the 2005 event, each with 4 prints. The judge for the evening was Mike McNamee. Southport won the trophy with 78 points and Dumfries CC and Carluke CC shared second place with 74 points. SLIC gained a score of 72 out of a possible 80 and was in joint 7th place with West Cumbria Group.

The four prints entered by SLIC were: Below Stairs by Maureen Glynn, (19), Winter's Music by Sheila Goodyear (17), Blue Orchid by Verna Piper (19) and Resurrection by Norman Piper (17).

The full results can be seen at:> http://www.ncps.org.uk/pages/results/digital/digitalprints2005.html

The following evening, also at North Cheshire PS, SLIC entered 5 slides in the knockout competition for the Challenge Trophy. This event was judged by Malcolm Kuss, ARPS, EFIAP/b from the Midland Counties Photographic Federation. 21 Clubs took part and SLIC achieved joint 12th place along with 85 Group and Altrincham & Hale PS. Wigan 10 Foto Club and Leek CC each gained 20 points but Wigan 10 won the trophy as their first slide lost came after that of Leek.

The 5 slides entered by SLIC were Shoot! by Sheila Goodyear, I Got Rhythm! by Maureen Glynn, All Bitter and Twisted by Norman Piper, Arch & Door by Verna Piper and Curlew at Nest by Michael Spillane.

The full results can be seen at:>
http://www.ncps.org.uk/pages/results/ncct/ncctresults2005.html

Still in February and the results from the Southport Open Exhibition were announced. This competition has categories for prints, slides and digital projection.

Chris Widdall had 2 monochrome print acceptances: Deluge and Isolation; 1 digital acceptance: Before the Mast and 2 colour print acceptances: Dash and On the Tiles (which also received a ribbon).
Maureen Glynn had 1 colour print acceptance: Below Stairs and 1 digital acceptance: Braveheart.
Sheila Goodyear had one digital acceptance: Stunt!

Results will be placed on the Southport website at: http://www.southport-ps.co.uk/

March brought the results from the Southampton International Exhibition (FIAP).

Chris Widdall gained 2 acceptances with Harrop Ridge and Heroes of the Ice.
Full results can be seen by clicking on:
http://www.southamptoncameraclub.co.uk/html/International/inter_index.htm

March went on to be busy month on the competition front with results from Rushden, Guernsey and the Vale of Evesham.

May also saw the 4th Suncoast Virtual Salon in America (FIAP). Both Sheila Goodyear and Maureen Glynn entered images in this competition.

Maureen had 4 acceptances: Below Stairs, Once Upon a Time, Retrospection and Chimera.

Sheila also had 4 acceptances, 3 of which gained Honourable Mention Awards: Street Entertainers, Arctic Explorers (HM), Split Second (HM) and Time On My Hands (HM).

May just got busier! Just a week after the Suncoast results were announced the results from the Trierenberg Austrian Super Circuit (FIAP) arrived. The Austrian Super Circuit is 4 salons, each with its own panel of international judges, and the pictures pass through each salon in turn. The categories are for prints (mono and colour sections), digitally projected images (mono and colour sections) and slides (natural history and colour sections).

Five SLIC members entered images in various categories.

Results are over the 4 salons:

Maureen Glynn had a total of 14 acceptances with: Another Time Another Place, Braveheart, The Past Re-visited, Once Upon a Time and Chimera.

Sheila Goodyear had a total of 16 acceptances with: Morning - Loch Long, Lift Off!, Street Entertainers, Rendezvous, Twilight on the Quays and Arctic Explorers.

Verna Piper had a total of 11 acceptances with: No Surrender, Millenium Clock, Blue Orchid and Woman.

Chris Widdall had a total of 19 acceptances with: The British Museum, Castle Rocks, Winter Gold, Henpecked, Scott of the Antarctic, and The Lowry Footbridge.

Norman Piper had a landslide of 34 acceptances with: Dolphin Island, Winter, Guardians, The Price of War, Alhambra Courtyard, Ancient and Modern, Fenceline, Totality and Infinity, Iron Bridge - Iron Ship, Those Were the Days, and Water Mill.

Still in May and the results of the L&CPU Annual Print and Slide competitions were announced. Full results can be downloaded in PDF form from here.
SLIC members enter through a number of clubs but the following members were amongst those representing SLIC and had work selected for inclusion in the folios or retained for use in the PAGB competitions:

Colour Open Prints:

Sheila Goodyear: Music of the Andes (12 - folio)
Norman Piper: Guardians (14 - folio)

Colour Open Slides:

Maureen Glynn: Chimera (12 - folio)
Sheila Goodyear: Jack Frost (15 - PAGB) 2nd place in category
Sheila Goodyear: Shoot! (12 - folio)
Verna Piper: Arch and Door (12 - folio)

Monochrome Open Prints:

Maureen Glynn: Maternal Instinct (11 - folio)
Sheila Goodyear: Pastoral (13 - PAGB)
Bill Kitchingman: Timber Texture (12 - folio)
Norman Piper: Totality and Infinity (13 - PAGB) Certificate of Merit

The Mersey River Festival Photographic Competition is held at the beginning of June and selected prints and slides are exhibited in the Atrium of the Royal Liver Building, Pier Head, Liverpool, for the rest of the month. The Awards and Opening Ceremony takes place on the Saturday of the festival itself.

The competition is split into three categories and in each of these there are sections for colour prints, mono prints and slides.
This year several SLIC members took part in one or more of the categories and gained a number of acceptances:

Prints:

EB Swarbrick: Mersey Celebrations (commended), Cathedral Bells (commended), Cunard, Blea Tarn, Possession, and Lazy Days.
Norman Piper: Take Five, Appleby Impression and Canal Boats.
Chris Widdall: Mariners (commended), Heroes of the Ice, Winter Mooring and Symmetry.

Slides:

Norman Piper: Guardians and Water Emergent.
Sheila Goodyear: "Pieces of Eight!", Afloat and The Docks (second place in the Sea Liverpool 2005 category )

The SLIC Second Quarterly Competition for 2005 - 2006 was held during the August meeting. The judges were Tony and Marjorie Furmston, from Yorkshire.
Maureen Glynn achieved the best aggregate score for 3 images with 60 points. Tony's choice of Carnevale in Venice, as his 'Judge's Choice of best' and Marjorie's choice of Faded Beauty, as hers, gave Maureen another 4 bonus points!
Other high scoring prints included Knight's Tale by Maureen Glynn, Window Setting and Bid for Freedom, both of which were by Bill Nairn, Dawn Angler by George Steele, Left by the Tide by Felicity Appleton and Arctic Tern by Michael Spillane, all of which earned 20 points.

The November meeeting was the 3rd Quarterly competition and it was judged by Alan Tawse, a member of Stockport PS.

There were over 50 prints for him to look at and on which to comment. EB Swarbrick had the winning touch this Quarter! He achieved the only 20, plus the judge's bonus points! His high scoring prints were, Peaches (20 + 2), Cathedral Walls (19) and Back to Nature (18). Norman and Mike Lawrence were in 2nd place with 53 points each: Norman scoring 19 with Aspects - Imperial War Museum and Mike 19 with Dark Secret. Then, with 51 marks each, came Bill Nairn with Face of a City (18) and Felicity with Water Lily (18)

November is another really busy month for competitions ............... first up was the Slide Knockout Battle at Rochdale and District CC. The judge this year was David Butler from Wigan 10. Last year we just missed the 'head to head' by one point; this year we reached the 'head to head' and missed the trophy by half a point; next year ............!
Michael Spillane's slide, Curlew at Nest, was the only slide to achieve 20 points.

Our 'head to head', make or break, slide was Maureen Glynn's Retrospection.

On Thursday 10th November SLIC took 4 prints to Bramhall PS for entry in the Panel Competition and a slide entry for the Laughton Trophy Competition. John Smith from Rochdale was the judge for the evening.

The SLIC panel entry, 4X4 won the trophy (SLIC has won this trophy for 3 out of th