ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

No official results posted as yet but...

I believe Irene Conner took out the State performance Championship. Congratulations Irene.

Edit: please note the above should read " almost took out"....

Hi Zondrae
Not quite - I was placed third in the state championships, but won the open traditional section. The overall championship was won by Peter Blyth, and runner up was Bill Gordon. Will post all the individual results when I get back home - am in Perth just now.
It was a great competition - Mel, Susie and Neil judged, with help from a local each time - and they were very impressed with the standard of the competition. Susie and Mel will be writing a wrap up from a judges point of view to combine with other reports to be send to Frank for inclusion in the magazine.
I will just mention that the Yarnspinning was won by our very own Dave Smith!!!! A big congratulations to Dave - it was his first ever competition!!

And yes Marty - I was very pleased with my 3rd place in the championships. I am still not real comfortable standing up reciting in front of a crowd - I much prefer to write than recite - and my nervousness shows through. (Plus I don't do humour, so my score in that let me down!! lol)
The fellow who won - Peter Blyth - has been reciting for a long time, as has Bill Gordon, although what is great to see is that Bill has just started writing his own poetry!! In the past, he recited a lot of traditional and contemporary pieces, but wrote his first poem when he went to the Gympie muster (the year before last, I think!) and Marco dropped him into the poets brawl!! So it was great to see him enter both the original humorous and original serious - and do real well in them!
The competition standard was high, particularly in the original serious, and the awards were well spread out across the different entries, so everyone who entered can be very proud of their performance.

Catchya
IRene

Way to go Dave! You little champion!

Congratulations Irene on your place and win.

Heather

Sounds like you both did very well - carry on Great to hear such good news

Cheers

Maureen

Thanks Heather and Maureen.
Maureen, you slipped that in while I was editing my original post!!

Will also post the results of the written competition when I get home and go through the paperwork I have bought back with me.

Catchya
IRene

Mates I had a great weekend am absolutely stoked. Elaine (wife) text all the kids and the answer she got back was “yeah duh you know he has always been a Bull**** artist” nice hey ya kids are supposed to love ya.

TTFN

G'day Dave.

Never the less I bet they are bursting with pride and telling anyone who will listen. (like my old man does!)
Well done and good on you for having a go and excelling. Good yarnspinners are hard to find.

Irene,
sorry to elevate you just a little too high. (I misunderstood your post on facebook) but maybe I am foreseeing the future.
You've done very well anyway. I'll go back and edit my original post to 'almost won'.

Thanks Zondrae

One thing that came out of the long weekend at Boyup Brooke, Elaine had some apprehension about spending the weekend with a whole bunch of bush poets. But found that she had a great time, so that’s gotta be good eh!

TTFN

Con grat Dave and Irene on fine job you have done


Regards Bill the old Battler

Congrats Dave and Irene, well done.