Introduction
Since 1996 the Wellington region stamp societies have hosted an annual Stamp Show. Featuring a range of dealers it also displayed material from the societies’ collectors. In 2001, to encourage more collectors to exhibit, an inter-club one-frame competition was started involving five entries from each society.
Neville Harris Memorial Trophy
Neville Harris, a member of many of the societies, and latterly president of the former Kapiti Philatelic Society (closed 2025) had been an enthusiastic supporter of philately in the region. It was agreed the competition would be named in his memory. Thus, the Neville Harris Memorial Trophy competition began. This was an event where the results were measured by the summation of scores of all team members. It permitted entries of half-frame (8-pages) as well as one -frame.
Over time the rules have changed but the basic concept of encouraging club members to exhibit their material remains.
Patrick Brownsey Challenge Trophy
It became apparent the clubs winning the Neville Harris often had entries from experienced national exhibitors. The basic objective of the competition was to encourage new exhibitors. It was decided experienced exhibitors defined as ones who had achieved 80 or more marks for any exhibit (one or more frames) at a national exhibition could not enter. However, these people still needed the opportunity to exhibit. Thus, another competition was introduced in 2024, the Patrick Brownsey Challenge Trophy.
Patrick Brownsey was a well-respected philatelist and president of the Wellington Philatelic Society. As a philatelist, and in his professional life, he always encouraged people to achieve more than they thought possible.
The Challenge Trophy is for one-frame exhibits either new or any that have yet to achieve 80 marks at a national exhibition. The purpose is to encourage new exhibits from experienced exhibitors or encourage them to develop an existing exhibit.
Judging
The judging for both competitions is carried out by teams of judges from the NZPF Register of Judges. They use the national one-frame marking schedule (i.e. no rarity or importance). See marking sheet.
The judging is usually carried out a week before the public display of the exhibits and includes written feedback to the exhibitors and the opportunity for verbal feedback at the frames during the show.
Neville Harris Memorial Trophy Rules
The Neville Harris Memorial Trophy is a competition between members of Upper Hutt Stamp Club and the Manawatu, Horowhenua, Hutt Valley, Wellington and Royal Societies. Each society may enter up to five frames of exhibits with two half-frame entries being equivalent to one frame.
It is open to exhibitors who have yet to achieve 80 marks for any exhibit (one or more frames) at a national exhibition. This is a team competition where the best three ‘one-frame’ exhibits from up to five frames from each entering club receives the Trophy. Note half-frame entries are accepted in this competition. The main objective is to encourage new exhibitors.
Where there are 8-page entries the best two are divided by two to get a ‘one frame’ score, the next best two divided by two, etc.
Patrick Brownsey Challenge Trophy Rules
The Patrick Brownsey Challenge Trophy is a competition for members of Upper Hutt Stamp Club and the Manawatu, Horowhenua, Hutt Valley, Wellington and Royal Philatelic Societies.
It is open to one-frame exhibits which have yet to achieve 80 marks at a national exhibition. This an individual competition from members of the six clubs. The objective is to encourage continued development of exhibits and exhibitors.
As the judging for the two competitions takes place at the same time using the same assessment forms, all one-frame entries including Neville Harris entries are eligible for the Patrick Brownsey Challenge Trophy.