Early Friday Evening May 14th Bnicc and
I were heading down the M4. towards the Hungerford turn with the storm
clouds venting their anger on Railtrack's signal switch box at Reading
station with disastrous results and chaos, gradually fading through
the rear view mirror of. the car. Continuing through the market town
of Marlborough and its famous college to the prehistoric Avebury Stone
Circle and Silbury Hill and thence across the rolling Wiltshire countryside
bathed on one side by brilliant sunshine but storm clouds over Devizes.
Our arrival in this market town was greeted by a brilliant flash of
lightning and crash of thunder. Thank goodness the venue for the evening
was less than lOOyds. away from where we had parked.
The Crown Centre, the location for the evening, was
originally one of the coaching inns with many of the old featurers
being preserved, including the tiled main entrance hall with the name
inserted. Being one of the first to arnvc we assisted our hosts in
setting out the chairs and equipment
There were entries from eight towns. Bristol, Chippenham,
Calne, Dcvizcs, Frome, Gloucester, Reading and Wcstbury. The 7.15
prompt start was more like 8.15 before proceedings began with the
introduction of the three judges - a theatre production manager, Cinema
reporter for the press, and a lecturer in media studies from a technical
college. Lots were drawn for the running order and we were drawn out
as number 1.. refreshments being served after the first four entries.
With the possible exception of one video, the standard
was vey good, so it was little wonder the judges took some time in
thcir deliberations. At 10.30 the results were ready, the winners
were the host club Dcvizcs with THE THREE FACES OF A VILLAGE (Castle
Combe) depicting the normal village, the medieval weekend, and the
motor racing track.. In second place was Bristol with THE CHOIR PRACTICE
shown at the I.A.C. South West competition which we hosted.and in
third place Gloucester with THE ROMANS ARE COMING a re-enactment of
the Roman days in Gloucester. Reading came fourth with our entry SAIL
WIND AND WATER.
At the conclusion of the event there was pknty of time to talk to
the judges when collecting the written comments. We like to enter
the same video at various competitions and get the comments from all,
then we can highlight the various likes and dislikes thus hoping to
produce better results in the future. Eventually we left Devizcs about
11.20 thank goodness the storms had passed through, arriving home
about 12 30 having had a very enjoyable evening
