WME Flickr Focus - July 2021

The Olympics are the pinnacle of this sporting summer and I've been really enjoying watching Team GB's athletes competing in their various disciplines now that the Tokyo Games are underway. I won't pretend that my photostream endeavours match the herculean efforts we're seeing in Japan but it is nevertheless time to bring you up to date with the WME medal table...

It's gold all the way for Exploration Extra which has been utterly untouchable in the updates competition over the course of July. Several locations have helped propel Extra to the top of the rostrum, starting with Suffolk where Ipswich provided the Isaac Lord quayside bar plus a Lord Nelson pub sign, and Felixstowe combined the Drill Hall with a seafront truck snap. More locks from the Kennet & Avon Canal in Bath have added their muscle to the total, while Leicestershire landed two Hinckley pub sign punches courtesy of the Holly Bush and the Duke of Rutland.

Still with Exploration Extra and another major contributor to the gallery's success has been Kent. Faversham powered in pictures of the Bear Inn and the cheekily-named 'Old Gits Corner' from the Elephant; the Broadstairs bandstand clocked in for its second appearance, supplemented by the Divers Arms at Herne Bay; and Deal took care of the watersports honours with a specimen from the Ship Inn. Away from the south east, Wales featured prominently on account of Chirk's platform mural and Conwy's vintage A55 RAC pointer. An impressive haul all round!

Silver medal position just about goes to WME Staffordshire, edging into second place on the back of Burntwood's Springlestyche Lane, Tamworth's Whitbread pub stanchion and Long Lane's canal remains on the Wyrley Branch. Bronze then becomes a three way tie between WME Shropshire (the Kings Arms at Church Stretton joining the Ellesmere White Hart), WME Walsall (Bentley Cairn and Aldridge Parish Church) and WME Sandwell (two contrasting views of the Red Admiral on the Gorse Farm estate). Well done to all of the medal contenders there.

The minor placings are filled out by a handful of galleries that should still be proud to have competed. WME Wolverhampton - so often a frontrunner - was quiet on this occasion, mustering up a single tram sign shot from The Crescent. Solitary additions are likewise the story for WME Dudley with its Black Country Museum vegetable basket, and WME Solihull which snares the 73A People's Express route. The final word is however reserved for WME Coventry, at long last receiving its first new item of the entire year thanks to the 34 bus at Tile Hill South terminus - sometimes it really is the taking part that counts!