The NZ National Pipe Band Championships were held on Friday and Saturday March 7/8th in Invercargill and they gave Scotland a run for its money weather-wise.
Friday was cold, and Saturday saw the morning Street March competition abandoned after torrential rain. Massed Bands were also cancelled as the rain started to pour again late afternoon.
The above photograph shows the G4b street march winners City of Dunedin as they made their way down the route in some of the wilder weather on the day.
By Logan Tannock
My son Murray was the P/M at Dunedin but had given notice of his intention to resign from the band after the Nationals, so I was helping him set them up for his last competition. I also played with them so did not have a lot of time to listen to the other bands as they had two competitions on the Friday, an MSR then a couple of hours later, a Medley.
Pipers were having problems with moisture, indeed my drone bores were wet which is quite unusual for me. No results are given out on the Friday.
On Saturday the day commences with a street march parade with drill judging. However it was the most horrendous day with the rain at times so bad the bands could hardly see where they were going, and judges could not keep paperwork dry so heavy was the rain.
The RNZPBA took the decision to cancel the street parade before the G2 and G1 bands took their turn, but many of the lower grade bandsmen and women who played down the street were soaked through by the end of it.
I left the park and took refuge in a coffee shop and tried to dry myself out a bit but ended up going back to our accommodation and changing into dry clothes and as such missed the G2 MSR.
I did hear most of the Medley and as far as I was concerned from the piping side, I thought the yougsters of St Andrew’s College from Christchurch, led by Richard Hawke, showed great maturity, and they and St Andrew’s pipe band from Brisbane, under the leadership of a ‘weel kent face’ Greg McAllister, played excellently constructed and executed medleys.
The results showed this to be the case with both bands tied for piping and the youngsters from Christchurch taking first by placing higher in ensemble and drumming. Band Club from Sydney took third in the Medley, with Celtic from Nelson fourth, and City of Tauranga fifth.
Grade 1 was an even tighter affair at the top with last year’s champions, Canterbury Caledonia, led by Jamie Hawke in his last comp as P/M, trying to keep top spot from Manawatu, led by Stewart MacKenzie.
Again I base my comments on the piping, and Manawatu for me just had the edge. I really liked their whole medley but thought the Kiss of the King’s Hand slow air with all its arrangements masterful.
Sadly the weather throughout the afternoon was showery and just as the mace flourishing competition started the heavens opened again forcing the massed bands to be cancelled. The prizegiving was done with only P/Ms, leading tips, and D/Ms having to attend.
In G1 Manawatu’s piping gave them all firsts and they won the Overall and the MSR. Canterbury took the Medley by scoring higher in Ensemble and Drumming.
The overall G1 results were: 1 Manawatu 2 Canterbury Cal. 3 Hawthorn PB, Australia 4 Auckland & Dist. 5 City of Invercargill and 6 NZ Police. This last band had at least two new recruits in the form of Nick Hudson and Andrew Carlisle!
That’s a thing I’ve noticed at the Nationals – how many northern hemisphere pipers are making the long trek to play in bands down here, and not all of them in Grade 1.
There were many other ‘cameo’ appearances. I bumped into young Angus MacColl, Rory Grossart, Eireann Ianetta-Mackay and Sandy Cameron to name a few. They were certainly given a wet and cold welcome to Invercargill.
Full results and summaries can be found here. One of the arenas and the street parade were live streamed. Sadly this meant that the lower grade bands were only recorded in one event. But the recordings from both days can be found on YouTube Friday here, and Saturday here.
There is no index so you need to trawl through the videos to find the performances, but G1 starts at 5:38:33 with Canterbury Caledonia. However if you use the draw then you can see which band plays in which position.
One thing that surprised me was that the RNZPBA only call out first prize in each event, so 1st MSR, 1st Medley and 1st Overall, which I felt was possibly quite demoralising when you have, for instance, Grade 4b with 17 bands.
I feel it would be more encouraging to the folks playing at that level to hear their band’s name getting read out even for a minor placing. I know that some of the grades only had five or six bands, but even then at a Nationals they could read out the top three in each category.
However, all credit to the RNZPBA and their new President, Liam Kernaghan; they ran the National Championships well under very challenging conditions.
