A Deluge of Prizes for Tweedvale Pipe Band!

The downpour of rain which greeted the massed bands at the prize giving at the Bathgate & West Lothian Highland Games last weekend was possibly the worst any of the assembled musicians had experienced, but it also brought a deluge of prizes to Tweedvale Pipe Band The band took first place in Grade 4 winning the John Russell Trophy. The Tweedvale drummers picked up the drumming prize lifting the SNP Trophy whilst the bass section was also successful and took the Billy Strathearn Memorial Trophy. Performing in blustery though dry weather conditions, Tweedvale played fourth out of eleven bands and did well to be awarded high placings by the adjudicators – third from the piping judge and first from the drumming judge. When these places were combined to produce the overall result, Tweedvale Pipe Band found it had been awarded first place. The other places in the Grade 4 contest were taken by Johnston Pipe Band, University of Strathclyde Pipe Band and Burntisland & District Pipe Band respectively.

This result also boosted Tweedvale Pipe Bands standing in the RSPBA Lothian & Borders Branch Champion of Champions table. This is a ranking of the performance of all local branch bands over the seven contest held in the branch area. After two events, Tweedvale are well out in front in Grade 4 having been the best Lothian & Borders band at both the Dunbar and Bathgate contests.

Speaking about the outcome of the Bathgate contest, Tweedvale Pipe Major Bruce Gillie said "It was a great result on Saturday, a marked improvement from our performance of the previous week. I thought our sound quality was much better and our playing was much more controlled and musical. We managed to beat two bands who took places in our Grade at the Scottish Championships which is a good achievement. Congratulations to the drum corps for once again lifting the drumming prize. I’d like to thank Mike Todd Car Sales for sponsoring our bus to Bathgate, thus making our success possible. I am confident that if the band maintains or improves upon its performance from Saturday we will be picking up more prizes in future events this season."

Tweedvale’s competition season continues this weekend when the band travels south to Hawick to take part in the pipe band contest at the third Hawick Highland Games, the first of four contests to be held in the Scottish Borders. The band will play in the Grade 4 event at the contest, and have been drawn to play 3rd out of 6 bands. Tweedvale Pipe Bands attendance at the Hawick Pipe Band contest is made possible by generous coach sponsorship from Innerleithen Union Club to whom the band extends its grateful thanks. The band will be aiming to maintain its winning ways and improve on the second place in Grade 4 which they achieved in 2005. Following on from the Hawick contest is the second of the years Border pipe band contests, the 5^th Innerleithen Pipe Band Championships where Tweedvale are aiming to make it a hat trick of victories.