Saturday, 11 Nov 2023 saw us at Bovey Tracey Golf Club for the annual Western Counties Kingswood Salver Competition. The Kingswood is a panel competition – five prints by five different photographers that form a coherent and cohesive panel on a theme of the club’s choice.

This year the competition was judged by Leo Rich, a well-known and experienced judge from the Southern Counties. There were superb prints on show amongst an entry of 17 panels and there was plenty of time for the audience to appreciate the work before judging commenced. Leo examined every panel beforehand, then delivered a very fair and consistent critique for each panel and print.

Our panel was “Fast and Furious”, which featured Scurry Racing - a main ring event at the Dorset County Show. Photographs were taken in 2019 and 2022 by Graham Lawrence, Helen Jones, Susan Buckland, Peter Yendell & Stephen Jones. The panel looked great - it really worked and balanced beautifully - and we are delighted to announce that we were awarded first place. Helen came second in the individual competition for the Vivian Croucher Memorial Trophy. The County Show seems to be our ‘happy hunting ground’.

After the lunch break, Leo gave an informal talk with digital images on his life in photography “Lucky Leo - the Finale(o)”. He entertained us with anecdotes throughout and stuck to his mantra that “photography should be fun!”