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The images for each year's competition portray a different genre and the one chosen for 2023 was "Shapes", A definition of the theme which was sent to our members and the judge was:
Our judge for the event was Mark Lanigan LRPS of Lymington Camera Club. There was a total entry of 52 images which Mark critiqued and then selected the Winner, Runner-up and five Highly Commended awards. Congratulations to these members:
1st place and winner of the Alan Cooke Memorial Shield was Maggie White with "Compressed Cans".
The Runner-up was Edna Phillips with "Shapes Through the Hole"
The five Highly Commended images were: Ian Bateson "Natural Shapes", Sue Dunham "Amethyst Water Droplets", Ralph Ellis "Candle Holder in the Setting Sun", Alan Price "Olio" and Maggie White "The Plaza".
To see the full size images please click on this link: Gallery
Sue Dunham Chairman
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The subjects were: "Detritus", "Fill the Frame", "ICM", "Little Things", "Negative Space", "Numbers", "Parallel Lines", "Reflections", "Something Blue" and "Symmetry".
The Teams spent the first part of the evening finding and photographing the images. Afterwards, we met back at the School for refreshments and the teams chose their ten images which were uploaded onto the MacBook before we left, Ian Hutchinson made a great job of doing this and putting them into separate folders ready to be scored at the competition on 21st June.
The images were all "as taken" as jpegs with no post processing at all. The results were excellent and showed the proficiency and skill of our members. Each set of images for each subject were shown as PDIs which Ian Bateson critiqued. He placed them in order from 1st, 2nd and 3rd and the cumulative scores were added together to give a total overal score.
After a very close competition, the winning team was "Arise" made up of Sue Dunham, Ralph Ellis, Ian Park and Edna Phillips, who was each awarded a pack of Maltesers.
To see the winnings team's images, please click on this link: Gallery
Sue Dunham, Chairman
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This year's Fordingbridge Challenge took place on 26th April at The Avonway, Fordingbridge. Eight clubs took part in this annual event each with with an entry of eight PDIs. These images must not have been seen before in external competitions and no more than two images per photographer can be entered.
The eight clubs were: Beaulieu Camera Group, BH PC, Blandford Forum CC, Fordingbridge CC, H & I PC, Ringwood CC, Salisbury PC and Wimborne CC.
The judge for the evening was Maria Leekblade AFIAP, DPAGB, who had the unenviable task of scoring what was a superb set of images. She certainly rose to the challenge with enthusiasm and a great knowledge of the genres and techniques on show.
The final totals were extremely close, showing the high quality of all the entries. The winners of the Challenge Trophy were Blandford Forum CC with a total of 73.5, with BH PC runners-up with 70.5. BCG finished in 6th place with 68.5, which considering the size of the Group is again a tremendous result.
One of our images scored the maximum of 10 "Porcelain and Fly" by Ian Hutchinson and two scored 9 "Ashness Bridge" by Bob Abbott and "Eye on the Ball" by Tony Darnell.
Maria chose her top three images whose authors were each awarded a bottle of wine. These were: "Oh Sh....," by MH of Salisbury PC, "Harvest Hare" by LN of BH PC and "Spotlight on the Universe" by DD of Blandford Forum CC.
To see the Gallery of BCG's entry please click on this link: Gallery
The scoresheet with all the marks can be viewed using this link: 
Fordingbridge Challenge 2023 Scoresheet
Sue Dunham Chairman
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The SCPF Championships 2023 took place on 26th March and were hosted by Lymington Camera Club at Brockenhurst Village Hall.
The judges were: Roger Reynolds Hon FRPS FBPPA APAGB FBPE, Sue O'Connell FIPF DPAGB EFIAP/d3 ABPE, Peter Brisley DPAGB EFIAP BPE2*
Thirty eight clubs entered images into the PDI section and 20 clubs entered prints. BCG entered the PDI section and achieved a total score of 159, the same as Southampton CC, Newbury PC and Horndean CC which was a tremendous achievement. Technically, this put us in joint 7th place but with the "countback" system in place, Beaulieu Camera Group finished in 10th place overall. We beat Salisbury PC, Chichester CC, Basingstoke CC and many other top clubs with large memberships.
Two of our images were awarded scores of 12*(one judge gave a score of 5): "Sea Pool" by Bob Abbott and "The Stoker" by Sue Dunham and "Water Dog" by Maggie White scored 12: Congratulations to them and to all our members whose work was selected and helped to achieve this outstanding result for Beaulieu Camera Group.
SCPF Championships 2023 PDI Final Placings and ScoresSCPF Print Championships 2023 Final Placings and Scores- Details
This year's Newbury Challenge Plate took place on 23rd March at Newbury Photographic Club. Seven clubs entered with eight prints each for the judge, Peter Crane ARPS to critique and mark out of 10.
The clubs were: Alton CC, Andover CC, Beaulieu Camera Group, Hungerford CC, Newbury Photographic Club, Lambourn CC and Wantage CC. Peter certainly had a difficult task as there were so many outstanding images from all genres and styles, which he gave equal consideration to. The final scores were very close with Hungerford CC winning the Trophy with a total of 70 marks.
Here are the final scores:
1st Hungerford CC 70 2nd Andover CC 68 3rd Beaulieu CG 66 4th Newbury PC 65.5 5th Wantage CC 65 6th Lambourn CC 63.5 7th Alton CC 59.5
Two of our prints were awarded a score of 9.5 - "Little Egret Landing" by Ian Hutchinson and "Sailing Boats ICM" by Maggie White CPAGB. Congratulations to them and to all the BCG members whose prints helped us to achieve 3rd place.
This competition has been held since 2002. Our highest position was Runners Up in 2019 and we have been 3rd on 5 occasions. Perhaps next year ....................
To see the Scoresheet with all the marks and scores please click on this link:Newbury Challenge 2023 Scoresheet
BCGs entry of prints can be seen in The Gallery:
A full list of the winners over the years and BCGs' position can be seen by clicking on this link:Newbury Challenge Plate History
Sue Dunham, Chairman BCG