The April competition had the theme 'A-Z' plus the usual Open comp. The judge was Peter Ottley from Backwell. It was fascinating to see the interpretations of the theme - pictures which had include at least one letter of the alphabet but no complete words. Some pictures stretched the brief but most fitted it well and in very imaginative ways. This is surely the value of a theme which is unusual and challenging otherwise we keep on producing very 'safe' pictures.

The results were
Open :1st Nick Farnham for '5199' - an absolutely stunning image of a steam train thundering through the countryside. Would grace the pages of any magazine for steam buffs.
2nd Jon Peters for 'Boathouse' - a beautiful atmospheric shot with a wonderful pastel tones.
3rd Diane Rowe for 'Anemone Nemorosa' - a very nice nature image with some muted blue tones.
Highly Commended went to Ayhan Ozberk for 'Lunchtime', Derek Carpenter for 'Do you have a ticket or not?' and Neil Harris for 'A bit too close'.

'A-Z' Theme
1st Rachel Carter for 'Srettel' - A simple but very effective interpretation of the theme - typewriter key face boldly displayed against a dark background.
2nd Paul Carter for 'In Ned of a Ductionary' - a fun image of letters on an 'Upwards' board - a real fun image
3rd Polly Knowles for 'Carved in stone' - a very strong image of a stonework engravings overlaid on a landscape of the monument
Highly Commended went to Paul Carter for 'Accordion player', Nick Farnham for 'Box for P's/Peas'