Five Scottish bands head south to the Spring Festival

Best wishes and good luck to the five Scottish bands who will be travelling south to the Lancashire seaside resort of Blackpool later this week to take part in the 102nd British Open Spring Festival Championships on Saturday.

Taking to the stage in the Winter Gardens in the Senior Cup qualification event for the 2025 Grand Shield will be Dalmellington (Andrew Duncan), Kingdom Brass (Thomas Wyss) and Kirkintilloch (Hedley Benson), while hoping to gain promotion to the Senior Cup for next year will be Newtongrange Silver (Anne Crookston) and Unison Kinneil (Raymond Tennant) playing in the Senior Trophy.

The test piece for the Senior Cup is The New Jerusalem by Philip Wilby and for the Senior Trophy the set work is Peter Graham’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

There will be 20 bands competing in the Senior Cup and 17 in the Senior Trophy. Four bands will be promoted from each contest to replace the appropriate relegated bands in each section.

The top-tier Grand Shield will be contested by 20 bands playing A Brussels Requiem by Bert Appermont.

The adjudicating team for the day will be Helen Douthwaite-Teasdale, John Doyle, David Hirst, Alan Morrison, Lynda Nicholson and Andrea Price.