Everything to play for at national qualifiers
THE qualifying rounds of the 2018 National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain take place in Swansea this Saturday and Sunday, March 17 and 18, at the Brangwyn Hall and the order of play is as follows:
SECTION THREE: Commence 10am, Saturday, March 17.
Competing Bands – Briton Ferry; Newtown Silver; Ogmore Valley Silver; RAF St Athan Voluntary; Severn Tunnel; Taff Vale Brass; Usk; Ynyshir.
SECTION TWO Starts at conclusion of Section Three results.
Competing Bands – Abertillery Town; Ammanford Town Silver; Blaenavon Town; Crwbin; Ifton Colliery; Newport Borough; Penclawdd; Pontardulais Town; Royal Buckley Town.
SECTION ONE: Starts following results of Section Two
Competing Bands – Abergavenny Borough; BTM; Burry Port Town; Deiniolen; Ebbw Valley; Lewis Merthyr; Llanrug; Markham & District; Thomas Coaches Mid Rhondda; Tylorstown.
SECTION FOUR start proceedings on Sunday, March 18, at 10am at the Brangwyn Hall
Competing Bands – Buckley Brass; Crosskeys Silver; Cwmtawe Youth; Gwaun-cae-Gurwen; Oakdale Silver; Upper Rhondda.
CHAMPIONSHIP SECTION: To commence following results of Section Four.
Competing Bands – City of Cardiff (Melingriffith) M1 (Garry Cutt); Cory (Philip Harper); Goodwick (Matthew Jenkins); Llwydcoed (Christopher Turner); Northop Silver (John Doyle); Parc & Dare (Leftfield Environmental Ltd (Jonathan Pippen); Tongwynlais Temperance (Andreas Kratz); Tredegar (Ian Porthouse)
The last two winners of the Welsh Region Championship Section are Cory and Tredegar. The winner of this section qualifies the band to represent Wales in the European Championships in 2019.
This year also sees the appearance of a new recently formed band, Taff Vale, who have been placed in the Third Section of the National Brass Band Championship Ranking System.
They are being conducted by the very experienced Gareth Ritter.
There is also a first appearance for Ifton Colliery band who are competing in Section Two of the Welsh Region for the first time. Ifton are based in Chirk, Wrexham.