Victory at Hawick Championship for Tweedvale Pipe Band

Tweedvale Pipe Band maintained their prize winning ways last weekend at the third Hawick Pipe Band Championships held in Volunteer Park Hawick by taking 1^st place in the Grade Four contest. The weather was ideal for a pipe band contest, being very sunny, and a marked contrast to the week before at Bathgate where it pelted with rain. Tweedvale played third out of six bands in the Grade 4 contest and second out of six bands in the Grade 3 contest, and gave two competent musical performances of their contest selection. The Grade 4 performance was well received by both the piping and drumming judges who placed Tweedvale first for piping and first for drumming leading to the award of first place overall. Other prize winners in the Grade 4 event were Newtongrange, Hawick and Duns who took second third and fourth respectively.  Unfortunately this was not the result announced on the day as an error in compiling the results led to another band being announced as the winner on the day. The mistake was corrected but not in time for Tweedvale to parade down Hawick High Street with the first place trophy. It is the bands understanding that the trophy will be presented to the band at the next competition, the 5^th Innerleithen Pipe Band Championships. Tweedvale also played up to Grade 3 for the first time this season at the Hawick Championships. Rather than play the usual medley set in this contest, the band once again played their Grade 4 contest piece and gave a run out to all the youngsters who are knocking on the door for a place in the band on a regular basis. The band gave another good account of itself but band members quite shocked to discover that they had been placed 3^rd out of six bands at the end of the contest, beaten only by the Grade 3 bands taking part. First in Grade 3 was taken by Linlithgow & District Pipe Band. Tweedvale Pipe Bands success on the day was due in no small part to the bus sponsorship provided by Innerleithen Union Club to whom the band extends their grateful thanks.

The results at Hawick also allowed Tweedvale Pipe Band to extend its lead at the top of the RSPBA Lothian & Borders Branch Champion of Champions table. The band has been the best branch band in each of the three local contests held so far this year

Tweedvale Pipe Major Bruce Gillie, commenting on the results, said "This is a great result for the band. I’m pleased we have got back to prize winning ways. Well done to the pipe corps who gained first place in piping for the first time this season and also to the drum corps who for the third time in a row took first in drumming. I’d also like to thank Innerleithen Union club for sponsoring our bus to Hawick. We will be practicing hard over the next two weeks to tweak our performance for the next two contests, the Innerleithen Pipe Band Championships and the British Championships at Pitlochry. Both of these events will have a big bearing on how the bands season pans out and I’m sure the players will go all out to put in two really good performances.”

There is now a slight let up in the competition schedule for Tweedvale Pipe Band as this weekend there is no contest for the band. The next time the band will be taking to the competition field is on home soil at the Innerleithen Pipe Band Championships in Victoria Park on Saturday 17 June. The band will be taking part in the Grade 4 contest at this event and is hopeful of repeating the achievements of last year when Tweedvale took 1^st place in Grade 4 and thus make it 3 wins in a row at Innerleithen. Looking forward to the Innerleithen Pipe Band Championships, P/M Gillie said: “It is important that we do well at Innerleithen as a good result there will have a big impact on our bid for promotion to Grade 3, coming as it does immediately before the next major championships, the British at Pitlochry. We really have to do well at the majors to get upgraded but a win or a good place at Innerleithen will be ideal preparation as the contest is being operated in exactly the same manner as the British, with two piping one drumming and one ensemble judge. If we get our performance just right on Saturday week I’m confident that we can take a prize and that will put us in the right frame of mind to do really well at Pitlochry.”