Ambury Shield Interclub Competition

A northern region inter-club competition. Normally held on the 2nd Saturday in November at the Fairfield Baptist Church Hall, 1101 Heaphy Terrace, Hamilton. For further details contact the Waikato Philatelic Society.

RULES AND GUIDELINES
A To win the Ambury Shield Competition a society (or club) shall enter AT LEAST five exhibits in a minimum of four classes. If a society has more than five exhibits, the top five only (in a minimum of four classes) will be counted towards the Shield.
B Societies may enter the Ambury Shield Interclub Competition with less than five exhibits, under the following conditions:

  1. The society shall not be eligible to win the Ambury Shield itself.
  2. The exhibits shall be judged alongside all others and individual exhibits shall be eligible to win the ‘Novice Trophy’, ‘Best in Show Award’ and a place in any class.
C
  1. A society shall not submit more than two exhibits prepared by any one of its members
  2. Two society exhibits may be entered in the same class, provided they do not belong to the same person.
D An exhibit may be submitted only once in the Ambury Shield Competition unless substantially altered.
E All exhibits must be owned, written up and mounted by the entrant.
F Ambury Shield exhibits are of 4 or 8 pages, depending on class, but pages close to that size are acceptable.  The use of pages of variable width is permitted.  However, an 8-page entry could be replaced by a 6-page or 4-page entry with 3 or 2 pages per row providing the row length does not exceed 88 cm (e.g. the page widths would be 29 and 44 cm for the three or double pages respectively).  It is compulsory for all exhibit pages to have protective coverings.
G All entrants shall write the ‘Name of their SOCIETY’, ‘Class’ and ‘Page Number’ on the back of every page.
H Host Societies are eligible to compete in the Ambury Shield Competition.  Judges must not judge a class they have entered.
I Judging will be the responsibility of the Waikato Philatelic Society which shall appoint a minimum of two judges.  At least one of these should be on the NZPF National Register of Judges. It is recommended the Host society provides at least one member of the judging panel, if able to do so.
J Judging shall be carried out using the three Judging Sheets supplied by the Waikato Philatelic Society.Clubs and judges please note:

  1. Only one evaluation sheet should be returned for each entry.
  2. Since the Ambury Shield Competition is often the first competition inexperienced exhibitors enter, it is particularly important that judges offer helpful comments.
K Entries in all classes require a short introductory sentence and/or plan.
L
  1. Exhibits which are incorrectly classified may be moved by the judges to the appropriate class if the results of the society would be improved.
  2. Should a society have five exhibits in less than four classes, rather than disqualify one of them, judges shall deduct thirty (30) marks from the total marks of that society.
M
  1. To decide the ‘Best in Show’ Award, first place exhibits in all classes shall be judged against each other.
  2. To decide the ‘Novice Trophy’ winner, the best Novice exhibits in each class shall be judged against each other.

Neither of these awards should be given automatically to the exhibit with the highest marks.

A NOVICE is defined as a person who has not won the ‘Best in Show’ or ‘Best Novice’ award at interclub level or who has not entered at National or higher level in an adult competition.
N All competing societies shall receive a copy of the judges’ total scores (ie the sum of the scores of the five exhibits) for all societies eligible to win the Shield. Where a society has less than five exhibits, the marks will be recorded for each class, but no total shall be shown. Judging sheets shall be returned to the competing societies at the prize giving ceremony, with their results.
O The Waikato Philatelic Society shall take all precautions possible for the security, safety and care of exhibits but cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage to them.

While the majority of those exhibiting in the Ambury Shield Competition will be experienced members, this competition is a very good opportunity for societies to encourage and support inexperienced exhibitors to enter as ‘part of the team’.

AMBURY SHIELD CLASSES
Class Description Pages
1 Traditional New Zealand One issue or one topic displays of NZ stamps 4 or 8
2 Traditional Commonwealth One issue or one topic displays from any country of the Commonwealth 4 or 8
3 Traditional Rest of World One issue or one topic displays of any other country of the world 4 or 8
4 Modern Philatelic material of any country or on any topic, issued in the last 50 years 4 or 8
5 Postcards Pictorial post cards 4 or 8
6 Postal History Studies of postal routes, rates, and postmarks 8
7 Thematic Subject displays using a wide variety and range of world philatelic material 8
8 Open Subject displays with both philatelic and up to 50% non-philatelic material 8
9 Other Displays not otherwise provided for – revenues, Cinderellas, aerophilately, postal stationery, polar philately, maximum cards, first day covers, etc. 4 or 8
Notes:

  • “Topic” in the Traditional Classes means showing a range of stamps and/or covers, etc, under a topic heading, eg NZ Definitive Stamps 1976-80, or Railway Stamps of Cuba, or Rugby World Cup Issues of 2011.
  • Class 9 provides a place for a philatelic display of any kind. The judges may place undefined entries here. It can include aerophilately, polar philately, astrophilately, postal stationery, first day covers, maximum cards, revenues and Cinderellas.
  • The entry size of 4 or 8 is to give exhibitors a choice of entry size. From a judging perspective the size of entry is unimportant. It is whether the entry is adequately treated by the chosen title that is important.
  • It is recommended that the paper of an entry will be of sufficient (e.g. 140 gsm) so the pages (with exhibition protectors) do not fold when placing them into frames.  If you are using thin paper the pages should be ‘backed’ with either thicker paper or card to achieve the stiffness necessary.
  • It is reocmmended pages do not exceed 28 cm in height to prevent damage to the tops of an entry.  A4 pages are not compatible with our New Zealand frames.
EVALUATION SHEETS

Judges assessing the entries will use Ambury Shield judge sheets