Highland Brass hits the high notes to win Fourth Section
Sunday 12 March 2023Day 2 of this year’s Scottish Brass Band Championships and the competition continued with the Fourth Section entries.
One disappointment has been the enforced withdrawal of Turriff Silver due to their musical director Matt Bailey and a couple of players having contracted Covid. We wish them well after they had all worked so hard to get back into contesting.
The test piece today is Darrol Barry’s Hungerford Town and adjudicators Brett Baker and David Ashworth decided that it was the performance of Highland Brass (below), conducted by Mark Bell, that deserved to win the section on 181 points.
Brett remarked that all the soloists had done really well and then urged the audience to give them a round of applause, adding words of encouragement: “Remember there is no such thing as perfection.”
Taking second place was Penicuik Silver, directed by Douglas Anderson, with a score of 180 points and in third spot was Peebles Burgh, under the baton of David Robb, on 176 points.
The best instrumentalist was Bryan Hynd, Buckhaven & Methil Miners’ euphonium player, and the Tommy Dennington Trophy for the youngest BBb bass player went to Duncan Thow of Dundee Instrumental.
The top two bands will now be invited to compete at the National Finals in Cheltenham on 16 and 17 September.
Before the results were announced, a tribute was read out by presenter Robert McCorkell from the Coalburn Brass Band Family in memory of one of their own, Beth Damer, who died a year ago. It was followed by one minute’s applause.
Three non-competing bands – Brass Central Strathearn, Clackmannan District Youth & Development and Forfar Instrumental – took to the stage in Section 4B to perform their 15-minute programmes for an adjudication by Colour Sergeant David Hamilton of the Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
In his summing up of the performances he had heard, he asked: “Why don’t all the regions do this, providing a fantastic opportunity for non-contesting bands to play their own choice of music in such a wonderful venue?”
The full results of the Fourth Section are as follows:
1. Highland Brass (Mark Bell) 181 pts
2. Penicuik Silver (Douglas Anderson) 180 pts
3. Peebles Burgh (David Robb) 176 pts
4. Bon-Accord B (Jennifer Cook) 174 pts
5. Buckhaven & Methil Miners (Steven Craig) 172 pts
6. Kirkton Brass Bathgate (Simon Railton) 171 pts
7. Hawick Saxhorn (Stuart Black) 170 pts
8. MacTaggart Scott (Peter Holmes) 168 pts
9. Dundee Instrumental (Bob McDonald) 167 pts
10. Dunfermline City Brass (Andy Shaw) 166 pts
11. Coalburn Intermediate (David Fehilly) 164 pts
A ten-piece group from the Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland entertained the audience with a short concert before the Fourth Section and Section 4B results were announced.
