The annual Club Championship is one of the major competition events organised by the Northern Counties Photographic Federation for its member clubs.

Held in February, the competition aims to find the top projected digital image (PDI) and print clubs within the Federation. It’s a competition for clubs as a whole, not individuals. Entry is free and conducted via each club’s External Competitions Secretary.

The event takes place in front of an audience and it’s a great opportunity for club members to see the top pictures from around our region and to meet fellow enthusiasts from other societies. Typically fifteen to twenty clubs take part.

There are two sections: one for Prints and one for PDIs. Each club enters twenty pictures in each section and these are assessed by three judges using an electronic scoring system.

Each image is given a mark of between 2 and 5 by all three judges – so each picture scores between 6 (rare) and 15 (also rare). The club achieving the highest score in each section is the winner. Arrangements have been made to deal a tied result without resorting to a ‘tie break’ round.

This competition is used by the NCPF to select images to represent the Federation in the national Print and PDI competitions run by the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB). The top two clubs in the print section go on to compete in the PAGB’s Print Club Championships, held each October at Edgehill University in Ormskirk. The two highest-scoring clubs in PDI go forward to the PAGB PDI Championships, which are held at Warwick University in July.