We are grateful to photographer John Kelly for these shots from Saturday’s UK Pipe Band Championships held at Stormont, Belfast. In what was a very successful day, local band Field Marshal Montgomery of Lisburn were placed first in Grade 1 – and they also took the drumming title. Leading drummer Keith Orr and P/M Richard Parkes are pictured above.
Scottish bands were to the fore in Grade Two with the first three places going to, respectively: Lomond & Clyde, Glasgow Skye and MacKenzie Caledonian.
Get the full results and summaries courtesy the organisers, the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association here. You can also watch the Grade 2 contest via the RSPBA website.
The next major championship on the calendar are the European at Forres in the north of Scotland on June 24. For now let’s enjoy John’s pictures from a great day at Stormont:
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Alistair Aitken OBE reports from Edinburgh: The annual Scottish Schools’ Combined Cadet Force (CCF) Pipes and Drums competition took place yesterday (11 June) at George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh.
The aim of this annual event, the venue for which alternates between schools, is to showcase the performance talents of school pupils being taught piping, pipe band drumming and highland dancing in private schools in Scotland. The programme included competitions for solo piping and solo drumming at different levels, highland dancing and pipe bands.
The pipe band competition this year involved six schools: Dollar Academy, Edinburgh Academy, Erskine Stewart’s Melville Schools, Fettes College, George Heriot’s School, Strathallan School
The results for the first six places were as follows:
1st Dollar Academy ‘A’
2nd George Heriot’s School ‘A’
3rd George Heriot’s School ‘B’
4th Dollar Academy ‘B’
5th Fettes College
6th Erskine Stewart’s Melville Schools
First for Drumming was Dollar Academy ‘A’ and the Best Bass Section prize was won by George Heriot’s School ‘A’.
The pipe band competition adjudicators were Harry McNulty and Tom Brown in piping, Peter Snaddon QVRM in ensemble and Alistair Aitken OBE in drumming. Each band played a medley of tunes and in general the standard of playing was very high, reflecting great credit on their respective instructors.
The top two bands achieved the same placings they attained in the Juvenile competition at the UK Pipe Band Championships in Belfast the previous day. The third and fourth placed bands achieved 1st and 3rd places in the Novice Juvenile ‘A’ contest in Belfast.
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