Search is on to find the Welsh League Champs
THE first contest of the 2017 Welsh League Championships, known as Sewbba Spring Festival, takes place at Merthyr Tydfil Leisure Centre on Saturday, May 6, starting at 9.45am.
The playing order of the various sections is as follows:
Due to a shortlist of entries in the 4th Section it has been decided to combine Section 4 with Section 3 and this combined section starts at 9.45am.
Following this combined section will be Section 2, followed by the Youth/Junior Section, then comes Section 1 followed by the Championship Section.
Bands who have entered this first qualifying round of three to find the Welsh Brass Band Champions of each of the Sections for 2017 are:
Section 4: Gwaun Cae Gurwen (Jeff Hutcherson); Oakdale Silver (Kerry Bowden); Malvern Hills (Chris License).
Section 3: Cwmtawe Youth (Wayne Pedrick); Ogmore (Alice Jones); Severn Tunnel (Grant Jameson); Upper Rhondda (Jayne Thomas); Usk (Jeff Jones); Ynyshir (Gary Davies);
Adjudicator for Combined 3rd/4th Section; Tom Hutchinson.
Section 2: Abertillery & District (Josh Ruck); Crosskeys (Mike Davies); Crwbin (Craig Roberts); Melingriffith 2 (Andy Wareham); Mid Rhondda (Thomas Coaches) (Alan Gibbs); Newport Borough (Robin Hackett); Penclawdd (Tony Small); RAF St Athan (Alan Bourne). Adjudicator for Section 2: Melvin White. Youth/junior section: BTM Learners (Lloyd Barnaby); Cwmtawe Training (Chris Thomas); Rhondda Fach Youth (Angela Westacott); Abertillery Training (Lesley Taylor); Blaenavon Town Training (Evan Smith); Llwydcoed Juniors (Richard Davies); Melingriffith Youth (Carol Flannery Davies); Melingriffith Beginners (Becky Cale). Adjudicator for Youth/ Junior Section: Tom Hutchinson
Section 1: Abergavenny Borough (Sean O’Neill); Ammanford (Glyn Davies); Lewis Merthyr (Craig Roberts); A W Parker Drybrook (Josh Ruck). Adjudicator for Section 1: Melvin White Championship section: Burry Port (Matt Rowe); Ebbw Valley (Gareth Ritter); Llwydcoed (Chris Turner); Markham (Matt Rowe); Pontardulais (Paul Jenkins); Tylorstown (Gary Davies). Adjudicator for Championship Section: Melvin White.
April 28, 29 and 30 the European Championships take place in Ostend, Belgium, with competitions for both composers and bands which include the Youth Bands as well as the Champion bands of the European Countries.
Representing Wales will be Tredegar Town and current European Champions, Cory Band.
Playing at all the venues will be The European Youth Brass Band and congratulations to young Welsh members of the 2017 European Band, Sacheus Holloway-Jones on cornet, Rhodri Ward and Samantha Ford on Eb tenor horn and Peter McDonough on euphonium.
To become a member of The European Youth Brass Band is a great achievement and these young players should be warmly congratulated.
The climax of the European Championships will be the Gala Concert which will be given by Cory as the 2016 European Champions. However, prior to Ostend, Cory will be appearing at the London Palladium on the Bradley Walsh new series.
This will be televised on Wednesday, May 3.