Every year Banbury Camera Club has a competition for The John Saunders Cup which calls for a set of 3 to 5 (or 6 or 7 depending on where you look on the website) prints mounted together as a panel. Originally set up as a photojournalism competition the images should ideally tell a story or be connected by a theme. I have entered twice before with pretty dismal (and probably well deserved) results.
Having moved to Cropredy in 2023 I was around for the 2024 "Fairport's Cropredy Convention", a festival headlined by Fairport Convention which began as a private event in 1976. Despite living in the area all of my life I had never felt inclined to attend but as a Cropredy resident it was not to be missed for 2 reasons a). there was no need to camp, just walk home and b). as a resident a 3-day ticket cost £48! I also thought that the festival and associated "fringe" events could make a good subject for The John Saunders Cup so took plenty of images albeit on my phone. Surprisingly I printed off my 7 chosen 6" x 4" images in good time and affixed them to a mount board. I had selected a photograph of the festival poster, images from the fringe events at the Brasenose Inn and the Red Lion (the latter featuring Mrs. Manley's band The Mangoes) some images from the festival field and finally, from the day after the festival, an overflowing litter bin with a poster advertising OneTone, a local SKA artist who appeared at The Red Lion.
I was a bit concerned that I had selected 7 images as the latest club literature referred to a maximum of 5 but on the night of the competition there was entries comprising from 3 to 7 images. The competition was self-judged with each member voting for their 1st and 2nd entries; fortunately for me mine was voted as the winner!