PROMOTION TO GRADE 3B ACHIEVED BY TWEEDVALE PIPE BAND!!

Tweedvale Pipe Bands 2006 contest season has been rounded off in fine style with the news that the band has achieved promotion to Grade 3B. This news together with a haul of 22 trophies from pipe band championships all over Scotland mark 2006 as one of the bands most successful years ever. Confirmation of the promotion was received in late October from the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association. The band gathered in early November to mark the occasion with a celebratory band portrait.

Speaking about the band’s upgrading, Tweedvale’s Pipe Major Bruce Gillie said, “The band members and myself are over the moon with our promotion to Grade 3. We have been working hard over the last few years to achieve this aim and finally we’ve made it. I’d like to thank everyone in the band for their hard work and dedication in making this happen. Now that we’ve been promoted, we face a new set of challenges in a more demanding grade of competition but I know that the band will be up to the task. Already the band is working hard at new sets in preparation for the 2007 competition season.”

Tweedvale Pipe Bands preparations for next years contest season are already well underway with the band working hard on new contest material. Grade 3 differs from Grade 4 in that bands are required to prepare two competition sets, one a medley set lasting between 3 and 5 minutes, the other the classic March Strathspey and Reel. Tweedvale Pipe Band is also on the look out for new members. If anyone is interested in joining a Grade 3 competition band they are invited to get in touch with the band by turning up at one of the regularly scheduled band practices, on Monday nights in the Vale Club Innerleithen and on Wednesday nights in the Burgh Hall Peebles or by surfing to the bands website at www.tweedvalepipeband.com for further information. All are welcome, whether experienced piper or drummer or complete beginner.