Inter group competition

A report on the Redbridge and St. Albans Marquetry Group's inter group competition that was held on Wednesday 31st March 2004

On the evening of Wednesday 31st March 2004 the Redbridge Marquetry Group and the St. Albans Marquetry Group held their bi-annual inter groups competition at the Redbridge Group's own rooms at Beal school, Redbridge.

The evening was extremely well attended and it was absolutely wonderful to find so many marquetarians enjoying such a companionable "get together". The evening was, of course, accompanied by a little of the essential friendly competitive spirit these occasions require and engender in those present.

The evening started proper when the St. Albans Group arrived on the dot of 7. 30 pm with a welcoming and a greeting of old friends and familiar faces. Our judge for the evening, Ernie Maxey from the Bexley Group, arrived with his wife at about that same time and with affable salutations to the senior hierarchy of both groups Ernie commenced with his onerous task of judging the final 36 entries from the groups in the inter group competition.

While Ernie performed this delicate task the rest of us did rather partake in a splendid buffet provided by the Redbridge Group members, in fact there was so many delicacies on offer that I imagine that nearly everyone went home that night with very full tummies indeed. We also had our customary "Chairman Roy's" challenging quiz (which the St. Albans Group won, grrr, grrr!!!) and an enjoyable raffle that happily favoured everyone equally.

After a good hour and a half's extremely difficult judging (the quality of every exhibit was of such a high quality that it would be no exaggeration to state that any one of those 36 entries could easily have won the top award) Ernie had reached his decisions.

Ernie and the group secretaries then got together and totted up the final results, and Dave Walker (our Redbridge Group secretary) then made the announcements. Unfortunately because of the impending National Exhibition it wouldn't be prudent at this juncture to prejudice or influence the judging of the National Exhibition in any way by naming the winning pictures or the winning marquetry artists. Once the National Exhibition has been judged we will be able to publish the full results of the competition on this site, we hope you won't mind the wait. However, we are at least able to give you a breakdown of the results of the six categories and we can inform you of the ultimate winning group who will be playing host to the inter group shield until the next inter group competition.

Note:- each class contains six entries comprising of three entries from each marquetry group.

The results are as follows:-

Class A, Beginners:-

1st = Redbridge

2nd = Redbridge

3rd = St. Albans

Points:-

Redbridge = 5

St. Albans = 1

Class B, Intermediate:-

1st = St. Albans

2nd = Redbridge

3rd = St. Albans

Points:-

Redbridge = 2

St. Albans = 4

Class C, Open:-

1st = Redbridge

2nd = St. Albans

3rd = Redbridge

Points:-

Redbridge = 4

St. Albans = 2

Class D, Miniatures:-

1st = Redbridge

2nd = St. Albans

3rd = St. Albans

Points:-

Redbridge = 3

St. Albans = 3

Class E, Three Veneers:

1st = St. Albans

2nd = St. Albans

3rd = Redbridge

Points:-

Redbridge = 1

St. Albans = 5

Class F, Applied:-

1st = St. Albans

2nd = Redbridge

3rd = St. Albans

Points:-

Redbridge = 2

St. Albans = 4

To illustrate the extremely high standard of the marquetry work on display in this competition, it should also be noted that there were three further pictures that commanded Highly Commended awards. These entries were 2 x merit awards (HC) for the St. Albans Group (Beginner's and Open classes) and 1 x merit award (HC) for the Redbridge Group (Three Veneers class).

There were a total of 36 entries and the final points tally was as follows:-

St. Albans = 19 points

Redbridge = 17 points

Ernie takes a little breather after a bout of heavy judging.

I think he deserves it don't you?

Every picture in that competition was well cut, had a good finish and the veneer selections were exemplary in all cases.

The quality of marquetry these days is beyond reproach, there is an enormous amount of talent in our movement.

So therefore St. Albans are the winners of the inter group shield. We at Redbridge applaud the work done by the St. Albans Marquetry Group and we congratulate them in bettering us in this year's competition, but never fear, we will be back with even better pictures next time, and we shall then see if we can turn the tables in our favour!!! so, until then: Well done St. Albans Marquetry group.

Thanks are also due to Ernie Maxey for undertaking the very difficult task of judging so many beautiful exhibits. That was a job very fairly and appreciably done, so "a pat on the back" there for you Ernie and once again many thanks from us all.