48 hours to go and today’s been the busiest of a manic series of days on the voting front. As we expected and warned at the outset, voting is often particularly heavy, requiring more than the number of simultaneous streams our current server arrangement can deal with. So you will sometimes have met a frustrating wait to get through to vote from time to time. Never give up. The contestants need you.

Today has seen particularly heavy voting in the Best Music and Arts Organisation category and pretty fierce action in Best Individual and Group Achievement; Best Blog; Best Community Website; Best Event; Best Heritage Website; Best Potential for 2009; and Best Tourism Website.

Some early hares have slowed up and are either being caught or overtaken. The question is have they a second wind? Some late starters are moving strongly and clearly have legs to go the distance – whether they get there in time …  determination is a major factor.

We’ll do as we did last night and take the voting patterns by category in alphabetical order.

• Best Accommodation: some more action today but still a dead tie in the lead between the same two contestants
• Best Individual or Group Achievement: a lot of action here – positions have changed but it’s still too close to call
• Best Arts Website: today’s action now sees a three-way exact tie
• Best Blog: more lively action – one contestant now has a strong lead
• Best Community Event: strong voting today, with one contestant clearly ahead
• Best Community Initiative: late starter action is continuing and a lead has been established
• Best Community Website: more strong action with one contestant now well into the lead
• Best ecommerce Website: one contestant now has a clearer lead
• Best Event: very strong voting today with the early leader now caught in a tie with a late starter
• Best Heritage Website: let no one ever say heritage lacks vitality – late starter getting well into stride but the hare’s still moving
• Best Local Newspaper Website: one contestant moving into a clear lead
• Best Music & Arts Organisation: a whirlwind of activity – late starter now setting the pace
• Best Potential for 2009: another lively day’s voting with one contestant moving into a clear lead
• Best Renewable Energy Initiative: more support for both contestants but the leader is still calling the shots
• Best Restaurant: one contestant still well clear of a strong and level field
• Best Sporting Facility: more to-ing and fro-ing with one contestant establishing a lead
• Best Tourism Website: a lot of activity here with yesterday’s leader pulling further away
• Best Village Hall: support for all contestants but yesterday’s leader has maintained position
• Best Visitor Attraction: very active voting and yesterday’s leader still clear of very tight field
• Best Wildlife Website: continued voting across the contestants sees last two day’s leader still out there

One vote today came in from someone who described his location as: ‘Came in on my boat. Now near Banff’. First votes from Northern Ireland arrived, along with votes from Norway, Austria and Thailand – and more from many of the 20 non-UK countries mentioned in last night’s update. The geographical sweep of people now with access to news on all of Argyll and the islands is encouraging for all of us. This is all of the community building for Argyll we’d hoped it would be.

Again today voting patterns have taken a new tack. Supporters of some candidates seem to have woken up after Christmas and are strongly on the move. This has had an impact on previous positions in many categories – and the game’s only at half-time.

Tonight we’re doing a situation update on voting patterns in each category – so here goes, in alphabetical order of category:

• Best Accommodation: dead tie in the lead between two contestants
• Best Individual or Group Achievement: a lot of action here – sleeping supporters of some contestants woke up and at the moment this one’s too close to call
• Best Arts Website: virtually a three-way tie
• Best Blog: very lively action in this category – one establishing a strong lead
• Best Community Event: lots of action in this category today too, with one pulling away to a degree
• Best Community Initiative: big supporter wake-up here, propelling one contestant into the lead
• Best Community Website: fierce action again, with one contestant pulling away today
• Best ecommerce Website: one contestant now has a modest lead
• Best Event: another hotly disputed award with one contestant catching the previous leader
• Best Heritage Website: always an interesting category, today saw some supporters of a sleeper get moving – could be highly competitive
• Best Local Newspaper Website: better action in this category today, with voters realising the value of the candidates
• Best Music & Arts Organisation: perhaps the strongest action in a very busy day – one contestant came from close to nowhere and stormed into the lead in is a tightly contested category
• Best Potential for 2009: interesting action here – supporters of one contestant woke up and made a strong play but have ground to make up
• Best Renewable Energy Initiative: more interesting action in this one – from a tight draw last night, one contestant is pulling away to a degree
• Best Restaurant: One contestant is pulling away from a very level field
• Best Sporting Facility: again lively action leaving the situation just now too close to call
• Best Tourism Website: still a fiercely competitive category, with one contestant now clearly in the lead
• Best Village Hall: good to see how competitive this category is – one contestant has now taken a lead in a level field
• Best Visitor Attraction: again highly competitive, with one contestant going into the lead over a very equal field
• Best Wildlife Website: close voting between high calibre contestants with one maintaining last night’s lead

We can’t tell you how much we’re looking forward to being able to tell you about the pictures painted of Argyll in this initiative – but they are genuinely inspirational.

To give you a sense of the spread and impact of the ForArgyll Awards 2008, as well as coming from all over Argyll, Scotland and England, votes have arrived from: Alaska; America (east and west); Australia (south, west and east); Belgium, Brazil, Canada; Czech Republic; Denmark; France; Germany; Italy; Japan; Jordan; Nederlands; New Zealand; South Africa; Spain; Sweden: Switzerland; and Ukraine.

And, with votes pinging into our inboxes endlessly, we’ve now turned off the sound on our computers. Situations have changed since last night’s update. We’ve seen some areas of competition go quieter, others wake up and start moving and some fierce competition that seems to have the stamina for the long game.

Competition is at its fiercest in:

• Best Individual or Group Achievement
• Best Event
• Best Visitor Attraction

Things are very close, or tied between two or sometimes three contestants, in:

• Best Accommodation
• Best Arts Website
• Best ecommerce Website
• Best Community Event
• Best Community Initiative
• Best Music and Arts Organisation
• Best Potential for 2009
• Best Renewable Energy Initiative
• Best Restaurant
• Best Sporting Facility

One contestant is edging ahead in:

• Best Blog
• Best Community Website
• Best Tourism Website
• Best Village Hall
• Best Wildlife Site

There’s still no life worth speaking of in the contest for Best Local Newspaper Website and there’s still a great story to be told later on the action in the Best Heritage Award.

You may have noticed that there was a late addition to the Best Community Initiative list. A nomination came in about ten miniutes before the deadline at midnight on Christmas Eve. The nominator said ‘I don’t know where you should put this but it may fit Best Community Initiative – but what has been happening at Islay High School is really putting the island on the map and it should be recognised’.

For Argyll had to discuss what to do as all other finalists had to gather many nominations to clear the threshold into the final public voting stage.

We felt that this nomination came from the heart of someone who profoundly appreciated a contribution to his community which would otherwise remain below the radar. It is also quite unlike any other nomination, being to individuals whose achievement is not for themselves. The nomination is for Iain, Stuart and Islay High School. You may not vote for them. It may not even be appropriate that you do – but now you know about them and that is what the nominator wanted to see.