Contest season starts promisingly for Tweedvale Pipe Band.
Tweedvale Pipe Band travelled to Dunbar
last Saturday to take part in the twenty fourth annual pipe band contest at Winterfield Park, traditionally the first outdoor
pipe band contest of the new season in the Lothian and Borders area. The event enjoyed typical Dunbar weather – sunny
but cold because of the sea breezes – which made setting up a sound difficult. Playing their new contest piece of “Jack’s
Welcome Home”, “Sruleen Park”, “Bessie Weatherston” and “Lord Lovat’s Lament”,
Tweedvale put in a very creditable performance which featured three pipers and two drummers making their outdoor competition
debuts with the band. The band was drawn to play 12th out of 24 bands. The band played well and when the results
were announced Tweedvale found that it had been placed third overall, an excellent start to the season. The drummers put in
an excellent performance to win the drumming prize on the day in Grade 4. The Grade 4 contest was won by RAF Leuchers Pipe
Band from Fife.
Reflecting on the Dunbar result Pipe Major Bruce Gillie, in charge of Tweedvale Pipe Band said, “Third place
at Dunbar is an excellent way start to the season for the band. Congratulations to our drummers for winning the drumming.
I am especially pleased that we have got into the prizes so early this year considering the number of personnel changes we
have had this year, with 5 debuts in a band of eighteen players. Overall our performance at Dunbar was great preparation for
the Scottish Championships at Dumbarton this coming weekend. I am confident that with a good weeks practice we will achieve
a good placing at the Scottish Championships.”
As Pipe Major Gillie mentioned, the 100 Pipers Scottish Championships take place in Levengrove Park Dumbarton this
Saturday 20 May. This championships, the first of five “major” championships in the pipe band calendar, see the
introduction of a new playing system for the grade Tweedvale is in which involves all bands playing a set of two 2/4 marches
chosen from a set list in order to qualify for a final where they can play their standard competition piece. Tweedvale Pipe
Band has been drawn to play 9th out of 10 bands qualifying heat 2 of the Grade 4A contest, and will play 11th
out of 12 bands in the final should they qualify. The band is confident of bettering last year’s result when the band
took 6th place overall, its only placing at a major championship.
