Everything to play for at Welsh Open
THE 20TH Welsh Open Brass Band Entertainment Championships take place at The Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl on Saturday, February 18.
The competition starts at 12noon prompt and the doors open to the public at 11.30am.
Previous winners of The Welsh Open Entertainment Championships include Tredegar, with 11 victories, BTM have won three times and Cwmaman, Tongwynlais, Burry Port Town and English band Flowers from Gloucestershire and current Champions Filton Concert from Bristol have won the Open on one occasion.
This year there are 11 bands competing and they have been drawn into two groups.
The group of bands to play in the first half are BTM, Ebbw Valley, Lewis Merthyr, Markham and District, Tylorstown, and Yeovil Town.
There will be a break after the last band and the second half starts at 3.45pm.
Bands in the second group are City of Cardiff (Melingriffith), Filton Concert, Goodwick Brass, Llwydcoed, and Tongwynlais Temperance.
The actual order of play will be decided by a draw at 11am for the first group and a draw at 1.45pm for the second group.
The winning bands of the last three years were current Champions Filton Concert who were conducted by Belgian Euphonium virtuoso, Glen van Looy, Burry Port Town conducted by Tom Davoren 2015 winners and Tongwynlais Temperance who were the 2014 winners under their then Mu- sical Director Steve Sykes.
Burry Port are not competing this year and Filton Concert will be conducted by Tom Davoren. Tongwynlais are playing well and joining them in the mix is City of Cardiff(Melingriffith), who were a very close second to Filton last year and there is also the current Welsh League Champions Tylorstown and Llwydcoed and very close behind them are first Section Welsh Champions Ebbw Valley.
This is going to be a real tight contest as each of these could be an outstanding winner.