According to Barry Meneses, master-mind of the awards for many years, the 2005 competition drew a record 162 entries, with 255 photographs submitted by members from all over South Africa.
 
Speaking at the awards ceremony held in Cape Town during July he said there had been seven judges including four NSPI representatives from each of the four regions, Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and kwaZulu-Natal. The three ‘outside’ judges were an engineer (who is also a professional koi fish judge), a magazine editor, and a representative of the Consumer Council.

Barry said there were 11 categories this year: pools arranged according to different types and sizes, as well as spas, unusual structures, restoration and water features. Judges must rely on photographs to judge the pools and are required to award points according to various specified criteria. They are asked to disregard views and other surrounding aspects and focus on the pool itself. The pool with the most points overall wins the national Pool of the Year Award.
 
To avoid rewarding members simply because they enter the competition, awards are not made if entries are not considered up to standard. Multiple awards may be made in any single category. This year there were eight categories which did not qualify for awards, including water features.The most popular category, residential gunite and handpacked concrete pools 13m2 to 20m2 with a tiled surround resulted in six awards, two of them gold. Two categories (residential one-piece moulded fibreglass pools including vinyl 21m2 to 20m2 with a tiled surround, and unusual structure or engineering skills) each produced four awards, three of them gold.
 
A total of 21 members entered this year’s competition, 11 from the Western Cape, five from Gauteng, three from the Eastern Cape and two from kwaZulu-Natal.