2020 Stevenson Trophy Competition

The John Stevenson Trophy 2020

Many readers and forum members will remember John Stevenson, a contributor to MEW but best known for his larger-than life presence on the Model Engineer forum.

Funded by many donations in his memory, the Stevenson Cup was first awarded in 2018. The cup is engraved “John Stevenson, 1948 – 2017, Remembered by his many friends” with “Awarded for Excellence in Practical and Useful Workshop Equipment” on the plinth.

The John Stevenson Trophy is presented for just that, a well-made and usable piece of tooling, a modification to a machine or an accessory for a tool where the fact it works well is more important than making it look good. Unlike traditional judged trophies, we decided on a different approach to reflect John’s reticence about traditional competitions. After a call for nominations, a small panel of judges selected a shortlist, on which there was an online vote.

In 2018 it was won by John Ashton and in 2019 the award went to Michael Cox.

In a strange twist of fate, the current coronavirus lockdown means that it’s unlikely there will be any traditional engineering competitions over this year’s exhibition season. The ‘virtual’ nature of the Stephenson Trophy competition means that we can forge ahead with it this year.

In view of the unusual circumstances, we have decided to once again make the competition open to all. Any reader or forum member may enter their own work. We have also extended the deadline until the end of June to allow people to make (or finish off or simply tidy up an existing project) during this lockdown period.

A short list will then be prepared by the organisers, so that award of the cup can be judged by a popular vote. Voting will be via a poll on the forum and open to all.

The winner will be announced online and in the magazine.

To enter, just send four good photographs of your entry with up to (about) 500 words of description by email to [email protected] no later than 31 July 2020.

<bump>

I've had one entry and a few enquiries, so far.

Please don't be shy and remember it's ingenuity and effectiveness that really count, so why not enter one of your own tools this year?

Neil

So there will definitely be a winner this year

(John would appreciate the humour)

I'm now up to two!

Come on folks, don't be shy!

Neil

Does it have to be our own original design or could it be designed by someone else?

I can't remember the rules.

regards Martin

Edited By Martin Kyte on 14/05/2020 18:00:05

It can be someone else's design but it should be you own work; as long as entrants are open about such things and bought-in components.

Neil

Thanks Neil for bumping this thread back up.

IanJ

I reckon this needs another bump !

A reminder to anyone planning a last-minute entry - you have until the end of the month to get your entry to me.

Neil

Hi Neil

I am considering entering the competition, with my meagre offering.

Hopefully there been a good response this year...

Regards

Derek

Not a tsunami, but enough to have a decent competition.

Neil

Voting for the 2020 Stevenson Trophy Competition is now open!

Follow the link below to see all the entries and the voting form:

www.model-engineer.co.uk/stevenson

Good luck to all the entrants.

Neil

Bump

Next year can we have a chance to say why we voted as we did. Might throw an interesting slant on things.

Interesting range or entries anyway.

regrds Martin

I probably never sent this to Neil, but here's a photo of the display on my tailstock DRO, (last entry) The battery has nothing to do with it!

Hi Duncan,

A shame, you should have included that with your entry (although I was really grateful for an entry that fitted in a half page!) I don't think it would be fair to add it to the voting page at this stage as others may want to add extra as well.

Neil

bump

.

Mmm ... that could be a tricky one

Are voters now required to disregard the ‘late-filed evidence’ submitted by Duncan ?

The lawyers could have a field-day !

MichaelG.

Hi, well I've already voted, so it won't affect me, not saying if I did or did not vote for this one though.

Regards Nick.

No problem. Lawyers never have field-days. Only pay days.

My problem is I like all the entries! Selecting fairly demands I spent hours scoring on build quality, innovation, design, utility, and sex appeal. Life is too short so I voted for the one that charmed me most yesterday. Already having second thoughts. It's a close run thing.

Dave