Rex Stott reports. As I left Walkington, just before 7.00 p.m. to drive the few miles to Brough, it started to rain. Three miles and five minutes later as I descended from Welton Top the heavens opened. I sat in my car outside the Church Hall for at least ten minutes waiting for the deluge to ease off. I certainly didn’t fancy the thirty-yard dash to the door. I also began to wonder if there would be any audience at all for the event. I knew all the competitors would turn up but Joe Public was another matter. Eventually about a dozen drowned rodents appeared. They were joined by several members of HMC and a goodly number of Humberside Young Magicians and their friends and family giving a total of about a couple of dozen ticket holders. But, my, didn’t they do well! What they lacked in numbers, they more than made up in enthusiasm. It was a delight to sit at the back taking these notes and hear the number of spontaneous “oohs and “aahs” as the competition progressed.Michael Harrop had planned to use two tables but the reduced numbers caused him to halve his plans. So this year the competitors performed at one table instead of the three of last year.

First on was Richard Morrell, last year’s winner. His skilful Rope Routine, confident patter and obvious audience management skills ensured that the competition got off to a good start. His strong finish, which included the appearance of a Plant Pot full of pennies, must have caught the judges’ eyes.

A previous winner, Ray Burrell, was next on and, once again, an easy and comfortable rapport was established with the audience. In his relaxed style he told of his early interest in magic and did a very basic plastic Cups and Balls routine using apparatus from a magic set. This was eventually followed up by a full-sized version of the effect and his kicker finish was to produce the small set of cups from under the larger – very neat and very clever.Roland Tuplin started his act with the Chains and Knots routine, which had so impressed HMC members recently on the My Latest Trick evening. Members of the lay audience were completely mesmerised by this and by his Ring and Rope routine during which one youngster on the front row was heard to say, in a loud whisper, “It’s magic!”It was nice to see the next competitor, Kevin Ward, so often the winner of the stage competition, venturing into the field of close-up. Kevin is an experienced working semi-professional and, oozing confidence, he soon had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand. They liked his Floating Card and his Invisible Deck routine and marvelled at the appearance of a borrowed ring on a key ring. On a personal note I was very impressed by his routine using a banded-deck where the face card dramatically changes to the selected card. Why not ask him to do it on Request Night? It’s a stunner!

Everything was going well and Domanic Li maintained this momentum with some very skilful card work. Then disaster and the curse of HMC competitions struck and Domanic did well to regain his composure and bring the act to a successful conclusion.Another previous winner, Tom Wilkinson, then took to the floor and, strangely seeming a bit nervous, took a while to settle. But settle he soon did, and Flash Cash and Sidewalk Shuffle were obvious winners with the audience. No cups and balls this year but a very baffling disappearance and re-appearance of a marked coin in a small envelope produced a strong reaction.Paul Kitchen must have gained maximum points for appearance. His infectious smile won over the audience as did his excellent version of Richard Pinner’s Casino Melt where three spectators cards appear in a glass. Paul finished with a well routined Coins-Across effect.

When the next competitor came forward it appeared as though he hadn’t any props with him. This was a ruse because once Malcolm Bromwich had produced some items from a glasses-case he did a wide range of bewildering impromptu magic that Martin Gardner would have been proud of. I know he’s going to share some of that routine with the Young Magicians at the next meeting and they are in for a treat.The final act (and how the time had flashed by, so good was the magic) was Gordon Stow. The audience liked his gentle, dry humour and his confident magic. The feature of his act was a Card-Printing routine, which produced several bursts of spontaneous applause from the audience.

An excellent competition came to an end and it was clearly obvious that the judges, Phil Peters and Mark Lee (of Merlins Magic) and a lay member of the audience, would have a difficult job in placing the competitors in order of merit. This is exactly what happened because half a dozen points separated the first five competitors. HMC President, Eddie Dawes, made specific reference to the very high standard as he presented the prizes to Richard Morrell as winner, Tom Wilkinson, runner-up and Roland Tuplin, third.The men from Merlins were very impressed with the standard, which they said would not have been out of place at an IBM close-up competition. What they particularly liked, they said, was that the competitors did good, strong, entertaining magic and, be fair, you can’t ask for much more. Despite the appalling weather, the evening raised nearly £60 for Brough Methodist Church. Another success for HMC – an excellent competition, well organised by Tom Wilkinson and Michael Harrop and well supported both by HMC and HYM.