SC - Competition entry

[Decker, Terry D.]

I've always thought that the worst part of A&S competitions was the so very
(un)knowledgeable judging.  Admittedly judging is subjective, but without
the basic knowledge of a given area of expertise, judging largely boils down
to "do I like it."  If the judges don't like it, then some will try to find
reasons to mark it down, often displaying their incompetence and injustice
in the process.  While the judging has improved over the years, there are
still enough problems to keep me out of competition.

On the other hand, I've turned down the opportunity to judge on several
occasions because I could not do the competitors justice and the rules of
the competition were such I could not limit my judging to my areas of
expertise.  Having been on both sides, I tend to find them a dubious
exercise.  

In most other SCA competitions, the competitors can be ranked, they compete
in a single area of expertise, and winning is determined by the actions of
the competitors.  In the A&S competition, people compete against each other
in different disciplines and winning is decided by a panel of judges.  As a
competitor, it is not much fun to find the judges are ignorant of your
discipline and you have no chance of winning on the merits of your skill.  

In my case, I found I could win cooking specific competitions but couldn't
win general competitions and the judges with culinary knowledge were people
I knew and with whom I discussed cooking.  I turned to doing feasts as being
a more worthy challenge.  Speaking of which, it is about time to do another.

Bear