Tweedvale Pipe Band resumed their competition season last Saturday at the Royal Burgh of North Berwick Highland Games and made a little bit of band history. For the first time ever Tweedvale took a prize in an open Grade 2 contest by beating an established Grade 2 band when they lifted the John Anderson Butcher's Trophy for 3rd place, behind Grade 2 winners Torphicen and Bathgate pipe band who featured local piper Graham Connor, a former Tweedvale member, in their ranks. This was a very welcome success for the band coming at end of a day which saw several extremes of Scottish weather. The band arrived at North Berwick in the pouring rain and there was some doubt about the contest actually continuing, the rain have been on for several days and making the park very wet and muddy. The weather eventually cleared by the time Tweedvale took to the contest arena. Playing first in Grade 3 and followed quickly by their Grade 2 performance, the band slipped and slid into the contest circle to perform their contest pieces in relatively dry and mild weather. Tweedvale Pipe Band ended the day placed 9th overall in the open Grade 3 contest, the event being won by the Royal Regiment of Scotland Pipe Band with the other places being taken by Lanark & District, City of Edinburgh and City of St Andrews pipe bands.

North Berwick is unique in that there is a “contest within a contest”, confined to bands from the Lothian and Borders area. In the Grade 3 confined contest, the band won fourth place and lifted the W.Quinn Trophy. The band also won a trophy in the Grade 2 confined event, the Peter Roberts Trophy for second place. The Grade 3 result consolidates Tweedvale's top spot in the Lothian & Borders Branch Champion of Champions table, though the other local bands gained ground.

Speaking about the outcome of the North Berwick, Tweedvale Pipe Major Bruce Gillie said "I was very pleased with the Grade 2 results, as this is the first time that we have taken a prize in Grade 2 competition by beating established Grade 2 bands. I would have preferred to have a better result in the Grade 3 contest as the March Strathspey and Reel set that we played in this grade is the set that we will be playing at the Worlds next week. Nevertheless, these results have set us up for a good run at the World Championships this Saturday and I know all the players in the band will be keen to put in a good performance."

Tweedvale’s competition season continues this weekend when the band travels to Glasgow to take part in the biggest event in the pipe band calendar – the World Pipe Band Championships. Held on Glasgow Green, the World Championships is the fourth of five major championships held each year and attracts over 200 bands from all over the world to compete in eight grades of competition in front of crowds approaching the 50,000 mark. Tweedvale Pipe Band’s assault on the World title begins at 1.39pm when the band is scheduled to play 4th out of 25 bands in the Grade 3B contest. Grade 3 band have been asked to play the classic March Strathspey and Reel selection for the World Championships, and Tweedvale will be performing their set comprising the tunes “King George V Army”, “Captain Colin Campbell” and “Lexy McAskill”.