First trophies of season for Tweedvale Pipe Band!!
Tweedvale Pipe Band picked up their first trophies of the season last Saturday at the Royal Burgh of North Berwick Highland
Games when the band took the Joyce Trophy for first place in the Grade 3 confined pipe band contest and the Ben Sayers Trophy
and the Centennial Trophy for best drum corps in both the open and confined contests. Playing fifth out of 13 bands, Tweedvale
took full advantage of the great weather conditions – sunny and dry – to put in what was undoubtedly the best
performance of their competition medley this season. Tweedvale Pipe Band ended the day placed 5th overall in the open contest, the event being won by Chilliwack
& District Pipe Band from Australia with the other places being taken by Kevin R Blandford Memorial, Lanark and District and Methil and
District pipe bands. Tweedvale Pipe Bands attendance at North Berwick was made possible by generous coach sponsorship from the Bridge Inn, Peebles, to whom the band extends
their grateful thanks. North Berwick is unique in that there is a “contest within a contest”, confined to bands from the Lothian and Borders
area. For the first time as a Grade 3 band, the band won the confined Grade 3 contest and lifted the Joyce Trophy –
an impressive Rosebowl which was well filled as the band celebrated its success. The North Berwick result also enhanced Tweedvale’s standing in the
RSPBA Lothian & Borders Branch Champion of Champions table, moving the band up from second to a first place tie with Linlithgow
& District in both the band and drum corps tables
Speaking about the outcome of the North Berwick, Tweedvale Pipe Major Bruce Gillie said "It was a very good result on Saturday, though I would have
preferred to have been placed higher in the open contest. I thought our performance was as good as any we have ever produced
in all our years of competing. .I’d like to thank Tom Menzies and the Bridge Inn for sponsoring our coach last Saturday.
The result has 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 six
grades of competition in front of crowds approaching the 50,000 mark. Tweedvale Pipe Band’s assault on the World title begins at 15.20 when
the band is scheduled to play second out of 13 bands in the Grade 3B contest. Grade 3 band have been asked to play a medley
selection for the World Championships. The bands attendance at the World Championships has been made possible by generous
coach sponsorship from Peebles Hotel Hydro, to whom the band extends their grateful thanks
