Ynyshir band come home full of smiles from festival
A BRASS band festival contest which is certainly growing in popularity and is attracting bands from all over Wales and England took place on Saturday, October 29, at Evesham – namely The Wychavon Festival of Brass: Entertainment Contest.
There are three types of brass band contests and the Entertainment Contest allows a band to play a varied programme of music lasting from 20 to 25 minutes.
Another kind is that all bands will play just one piece of music which is selected by the contest organisers and, thirdly, bands are allowed to select their own piece of music, which is described as an “own choice” band contest.
The Wychavon Entertainment contest had four sections with Dave Lee adjudicating the Championship Section, Duncan Beckley adjudicating the First Section, Ceri Thomas adjudicating the Third Section and Sarah Groarke-Booth adjudicating the Fourth Section.
Wales were represented in all four sections with some mixed results.
In the Championship Section City of Cardiff (Melingriffith), (M.D. Dewi Griffiths) who have a First Section grading, showed up pretty well by obtaining 6th place out of 16 bands in this higher section. B.T.M. band (M.D. Jeff Hutcherson), who are also not a Championship class band gained 10th place and the other Welsh band in this sec- tion was Tylorstown (M.D. Gary Davies) who finished in 15th place. The winner of the Championship Section was Eccles Borough, from the Manchester area, and they were also winners of the First Section.
Breathing down Eccles Borough Band’s neck were City of Cardiff (Melingriffith) and B.T.M. who were placed 2nd and 3rd respectively in the First Section. Lewis Merthyr (M.D. Craig Roberts) had a rather disappointing day finishing in 10th place.
Abertillery, under the baton of Josh Ruck, was the only Welsh band in the Third Section and finished in a very respectable fourth place behind Weston Brass, Cinderford and Stourport-on-Severn.
Ynyshir Brass, from Rhondda Fach, carried all before them and were declared the Fourth Section winners with conductor Gary Davies being awarded the WBF Plate as the winning conductor.
The percussion section won the Centre Stage Percussion Trophy and the band picked up The Fleece Inn Trophy & Certificate and £400.
Other award winners were Frances Wilson of City of Cardiff (Melingriffith) whose Euphonium playing gained her the WFB Soloist Trophy, the City of Cardiff (Melingriffith) band won The Wychavon Cup & Certificate and £450, and the B.T.M. Band won The Festival Cup & Certificate and £225.
For the first time the band winning the Championship section at Wychavon will be invited to take part in the Senior Trophy competition at Blackpool in May 2017.
The Senior Trophy contest is by invitation only and the best bands in this section get invited to play in the Senior Cup the following year.
The best bands in the Senior Cup get an invitation to play in the following year’s Grand Shield contest. The best two bands in the Grand Shield competition get the invitation to take part in the most prestig- ious contest in Britain, The British Open Championships.
Getting this link to the steps leading to the British Open Championships has raised the attraction and kudos of The Wychavon Festival and Championship bands will be including the Wychavon Contest in their fixture list in future years.
Having Cory, the world ranked number one band and current British Open Champions, and Tredegar, world ranked number five and previous double British Open Champions, in Wales, I am sure that we will see a number of Welsh Championship bands trying to get an invite to the Senior Trophy via the Wychavon contest
Eccles Borough band, this year’s winner at Wychavon, are now back on a road that could take them back to the British Open Championships whose title they won in 1930!