A digitally projected image battle between the island’s three photographic societies has been a long-standing feature of our annual photographic calendar, this year hosted by the Western Photographic Society in Peel in a rolling rota.

The rules are simple - 30 images from each society, no photographer to have more than five images in competition, each image scored with a maximum of 20 points, the society with the greatest score winning an impressive trophy and the judge to choose their favourite image to win the individual award.

Our judge this year was Rob Hockney DPAGB BPE5*, a very distinguished and well qualified authority and also president of the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union, the overarching federation to which all our societies are affiliated.

With 90 images to score, the format followed was judging on the fly - no previous awareness of the images, a quick run-through (two-three seconds for each image) to get an idea of the range of images, and then a detailed critique/ commentary on each one followed by a score.

The format in such judging is that most images of a reasonable standard will score 14 to 17 points while images considered more worthy are held back for more detailed analysis and a higher score.

Rob proved a superb judge, a clear speaker, giving a concise and very fluent commentary with the reasons justifying his score.

He carefully explained many of the factors in his judging.

The title was important and could - should! - amplify the reason for the author taking the image, and not just state the obvious.

Images should not be over-enlarged as this could expose softness or defects for the judge to pounce on; and holiday shots, while emotionally significant to the author, rarely cut the mustard as competition images.

At the half-time break, because of the number of retained images, it was impossible to know the standing for each society so the suspense was mounting.

The second half proved decisive with the Western Society proving to have a greater number of these higher-scoring images – six of the 12 being from the WPS.

And so it proved with Western eventually scoring 501 points, Isle of Man 480, and Southern 470.

Notably, Dorothy Flint, a very experienced and skilled photographer, gained three maximum scores.

Ruth Nicholls, also from the WPS, was awarded the trophy for best overall image, a very simple still life arrangement titled Minted Pea Salad - a plate, knife and fork, a smear of sauce, a pea and a sprig of mint, but beautifully arranged, the metal of the cutlery well caught, the white of the plate and background immaculately seen.

Bouncing Ball by Sue Blythe was the highest scoring image from the IOMPS, as was Ladies Smock by Steve Johnstone from the Southern Photographic Society.

A much-enjoyed evening, some good craic between the members of the different clubs, and a great vibe for all involved.

John Keelan gave a very well-deserved vote of thanks.

The venue, Peel Football Club, proved a success, and Niarby Catering provided the hot pot supper. Thanks to them both.