All roads lead to Perth for this weekend’s Scottish Championships

For 54 Scottish bands and their supporters, all roads lead to Perth this weekend. More than 1300 brass musicians will be taking to the stage of the Fair City’s impressive concert hall in the Scottish Brass Band Championships over the course of Saturday and Sunday.

The championships are the regional qualifying event for the national finals and 51 of the bands will be vying to represent their country in Cheltenham and the Royal Albert Hall later this year.

The other three bands will be performing in a special non-contesting section for the experience of playing in a large arena and to receive an appraisal of their 15-minute programme of own-choice music.

This is the order and approximate timings for each section:

Saturday 11 March

9.30am (pre-drawn)

Second Section (adjudicators Sandy Smith and John Ward)

Annan Town (Lewis Wilkinson)

Broxburn & Livingston (Bryan Allen)

Clackmannan District (Paul Drury)

Dysart Colliery Silver (Lynda Nicholson)

Irvine & Dreghorn Brass (Lewis Bettles)

Jedforest Instrumental (Philip Rosier)

Kilmarnock Concert Brass (Scott Walker)

Newmilns & Galston (Alan Friel)

Renfrew Burgh (Mark Good)

St. David's Brass (John A Dickson)

St. Ronan's Silver (David McLeod)

2pm (pre-drawn)

Third Section (adjudicators Brett Baker and David Ashworth)

Arbroath & Carnoustie (Audrey Bird)

Brass Sounds Inverclyde (Joshua Parkhill)

Croy Silver (Kenneth Blackwood)

Langholm Town (Chris Bradley)

Perthshire Brass (Willie McMullan)

Selkirk Silver (Charlie Farren)

Shotts St. Patrick’s Brass (Andy Shaw)

Stranraer Brass (Angela Miller)

Whitburn Heartlands (Paul Kiernan)

5pm (draw 3.30pm)

First Section (adjudicators Sandy Smith and John Ward)

Bathgate (Mareika Gray)

Coalburn Silver (Gareth Bowman)

Dunaskin Doon (Paul Drury)

Granite City Brass (Bruce Wallace)

Lochgelly (Chris Shanks)

Newmains & District (Michael Marzella)

Newtongrange Silver (Anne Crookston)

The Kirkintilloch Band (Hedley Benson)

Tullis Russell Mills (George Cameron)

Sunday 12 March

9.30am (pre-drawn)

Fourth Section (adjudicators Brett Baker and David Ashworth)

Bon-Accord B ((Jennifer Cook)

Buckhaven & Methil Miners (Steven Craig)

Coalburn Intermediate (David Fehilly)

Dundee Instrumental (Robert McDonald)

Dunfermline City Brass (Andy Shaw)

Hawick Saxhorn (Stuart Black)

Highland Brass (Mark Bell)

Kirkton Brass Bathgate (Simon Railton)

MacTaggart Scott Loanhead (Peter Holmes)

Peebles Burgh (David Robb)

Penicuik Silver (Douglas Anderson)

Turriff Silver (Matt Bailey)

12.45pm

Section 4B for non-contesting bands (adjudicator David Hamilton)

Brass Central Strathearn (Tom Smith)

Clackmannan District Youth & Development (Luci Lamb)

Forfar Instrumental (Donald Innes)

2.30pm (draw 1pm)

Championship Section (adjudicators Sandy Smith and John Ward)

Bon-Accord Silver (Adam Cooke)

Bo'ness & Carriden (Gary Cutt)

Dalkeith & Monktonhall (James Chamberlain)

Dalmellington (Erik Janssen)

Johnstone (Colin McKenzie)

Kingdom Brass (Corsin Tuor)

Kirkintilloch Kelvin Brass (Thomas Wyss)

the cooperation band (Mike Fowles)

Unison Kinneil (Raymond Tennant)

Whitburn (Prof Nicholas Childs)

SBBA president Carrie Boax is looking forward to welcoming all bands and supporters to the championships without, as was the case last year, the encumbrance of Covid restrictions.

She commented: “No more physical spacing on stage – goodbye, metre stick! – no mask wearing, and no cleaning and sanitising various aspects of the facility, all of which made last year’s contest a very surreal, stressful and strange experience for many people.

“But with typical brass band resilience, we got through it – and now 12 months later we are back!”