Two homes judged to have best lights
Wednesday December 24, 2008
Cobar’s Scouts and Cubs helped judge and present the joint winners of this year’s The Cobar Weekly and Country Energy Christmas lights competition. The Kershaws (pictured left) and the Simes’ (right) couldn’t be split on a pointscore of the best lights in Cobar and each received $200 courtesy of Country Energy.
Christmas light displays have brought out the best of Cobar’s residents imaginations this year with hundreds of lights across the town being turned on to light the way for festive celebrations.
The Cobar Weekly and Country Energy 2008 Christmas Lights competition had a record 23 entries and was this year judged on Friday night by 10 members of the Cobar Scouts group.
“It was difficult to pick just one overall winner,” Christina Gordon from the Scouts said on Monday.
To determine a winner, the Scouts followed the Christmas Lights judging system originally developed by the Girl Guides with each house display given a mark out of five.
“Two displays got the top mark of 50 points and we couldn’t separate them, so we awarded two first places and a third,” Narelle Retallick, the competition organiser from The Cobar Weekly said.
“Equal first place ($200 each) went to the Simes at 30 Tindera Street and the Kershaws at 54 Becker Street.
“Third place went to last year’s competition winner, the Cummins’ at 8 Molineaux Street.
“The overall standards in this year’s competition were very high with only a couple of points separating the top five entries,” Mrs Retallick said.
“It was also noted there were a number
of homes with some brilliant displays that did not even nominate for the competition,” she said.
Country Energy’s regional general manager, Pete Halliwell, reminded home lighting decorators to take a few simple precautions when stringing their twinkling lights and advised residents to check the Country Energy Christmas lights safety checklist.
“Whether you intend to enter a community lights competition or just enjoy the spectacle of lights in your front yard, electrical safety must be the number one priority,” Mr Halliwell said.
“Little things like keeping power points and adaptors out of reach of children, unplugging the lights before you go to bed and carefully following the light manufacturers’ safety and installation instructions are so important at this time of year.
“Avoid the dangers of overloading power points or boards with a maze of extension cords, plugs and wires all coming from the same outlet and don’t piggyback double adaptors,” Mr Halliwell said.
While most Christmas lights don’t look that powerful, both indoors and out, the combined power of them can put undue stress on the home electrical system.
“Use different sockets around the house to plug in multiple lights to balance the load and check bulbs, sockets, and light and extension cords for any damage and discard lights and cords that are broken or had it,” Pete said.
The importance of safety can’t be emphasised enough at this time of year when so many households participate in Christmas lights activities, many of which Country Energy sponsors.
“It’s fantastic to see so many communities get into the festive spirit with imaginative Christmas lights displays – but we want to see people stay safe at the same time.
“Accidents need not happen – you can protect your families and your homes just by following some common-sense safety precautions and still have a wonderful lights display to share with your community,” he said.
The Christmas lights safety checklist is available at www.countryenergy.com.au/safety.
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