World Pipe Band Champions Inveraray and District held a victory march through their home village on Saturday (August 31st).
A large crowd enjoyed sunny weather as they welcomed the band to the Argyllshire tourist hotspot.
Two weeks earlier P/M Stuart Liddell MBE and his pipers and drummers secured their third Worlds title at Glasgow Green triumphing over Northern Ireland’s Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band and other top bands in a high standard Grade 1 contest.
The parade capped a spectacular fortnight for the band and its pipers. Only two days after the Worlds P/M Liddell was crowned Champion Piper at the prestigious Argyllshire Gathering with a second in the Former Winners’ March, Strathspey and Reel and placing third in the Senior Piobaireachd.
In the same contest P/Sgt. Alasdair Henderson placed first in an international field of the world’s top pipers. A week later young piper Brodie Watson-Massey won the Silver Medal at the Northern Meeting in Inverness and placed third in the ‘B’ grade MSR – won by another Inveraray piper, John Dew.
At Inverness P/M Liddell was also among the silverware taking the Former Winners’ MSR title – not forgetting P/Sgt Henderson’s first in the Hornpipe & Jig.
2024 is not a year Inveraray and District and its pipers will forget in a hurry.
- We thank Oban photographer Kevin McGlynn for supplying these pictures.
Chatsworth Piping
This competition was held in Derbyshire on Sunday, September 1. The venue was the 1,000-acre estate surrounding Chatsworth House. The competition is part of the estate’s annual Country Fair.
It attracted a number of pipers from abroad and from north of the border. The weather was fine and the competition was reported to have been very well organised.
Piob (4 tunes):
1 Ed McIlwaine, Blue Ribbon (pictured), £450
2 William Geddes, Lady Margaret MacDonald’s Salute, £330
3 William McCallum, Phantom Piper of the Corrieyairick, £270
4 James MacHattie, Lament for Donald Duaghal MacKay, £210
March: 1 William McCallum 2 Bobby Durning 3 William Geddes 4 Dan Lyden
S&R: 1 William McCallum 2 William Geddes 3 Bobby Durning 4 Andrew Hall
H&J: 1 William McCallum 2 Bobby Durning 3 Andrew Hall 4 William Geddes
6/8: 1 Neil Esselmont 2 William McCallum 3 William Geddes 4 James MacHattie
Prizes in March and S&R: £130, £105, £90, £75
Prizes in H&J and 6/8: £60, £45, £35, £30
The overall winner receives an additional £200 prize.
Judges: R Livingstone, W Wotherspoon
