Highs and lows at weekend of musical rivalry
THIS has been an excellent weekend of great rivalry and superb music making with some bands excelling themselves while some experienced great disappointment.
The bands who qualified for the finals of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain are naturally jubilant and rightly so, but there were a couple of very confident bands who failed to realize their true potential and were left feeling rather empty and downcast.
That’s banding I’m afraid and it happens just about every year so it just has to be accepted! Championship Section – These three bands will represent Wales at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday, October 14:
1st – Cory (Philip Harper); 2nd – Tredegar Town (Ian Porthouse); 3rd – Tongwynlais Temperance (Michael Fowles); Wales in the Great Britain Championships, represent Wales at the European Championships in 2018.
Cory seem to be continuing their run of successes into 2017 and who knows when it will end! The best bass section was from Cory and in addition Cory were presented with a Special Award for last year’s outstanding achievement!
Best Instrumentalist – Cory tenor horn player Ailsa Russell. The Finals for Section 1, 2, 3 and 4 will take place at the Centaur Hall, Cheltenham Racecourse on September 16 and 17.
The two First Section finalists representing Wales are: 1st – Parc & Dare (Leftfield Environmental) (Capt P Collis-Smith); 2nd – Llanrug (Paul Hughes).
Parc & Dare gave an outstanding performance under guest conductor Captain Paul Collis-Smith to regain some of the ground that they have lost over recent months.
Andrea Lewis continues to show her class by once again taking the best flugel player prize. Llanrug will be delighted to make the finals having narrowly missed out last year.
Best Instrumentalist – Parc & Dare (Leftfield Environmental) flugel player Andrea Lewis.
The two Second Section finalists representing Wales are: 1st – Abergavenny Borough (Sean O’Neill); 2nd – Penclawdd (Tony Small).
Recently relegated Abergavenny Borough showed great musicality to prove that they are already on the road to promotion under musical director Sean O’Neill. Joining them in the finals are Penclawdd having redeemed themselves after inexplicably failing at the last Welsh League Contest last November at Merthyr.
Best Instrumentalist – Abergavenny Borough tenor horn player Deborah Bull.
The two Third Section finalists representing Wales are: 1st – Newport Borough (Robin Hackett); 2nd – Abertillery & District (Josh Ruck).
This is an exceptional result for Newport Borough who reached the Fourth Section finals last year and are now returning to the finals in this higher section. Well done to their musical director Robin Hackett.
Josh Ruck is certainly creating a good outfit at Abertillery as this is a return to Cheltenham having reached the finals last year and he is taking another big step for promotion.
Best Instrumentalist – Abertillery & District euphonium player Jonathon Bevan. The two Fourth Section Finalists Representing Wales are: 1st – RAF St Athan (Alan Bourne); 2nd – Seindorf Arian yr Oakeley (John Glyn-Jones).
Excellent result for RAF St Athan who have recently been relegated and also for Oakeley who have been missing for a couple of years.
Best Instrumentalist – Cwmtawe Youth euphonium player Lordi Williams.