History: Argyllshire Gathering 1981, Part 3

We continue with our article from the Oban Times of early September 1981. It is by Alfred Morrison, their piping correspondent at the time. Having dealt with the Gold Medal, he now reports on the other events…..

Former Winners Piobaireachd Competition: This took place in the Phoenix Cinema. Eight tunes were set and each competitor had to select four tunes, one of which he was asked to play.

Eight competitors entered for the competition and two withdrew. The standard in this competition as a rule is a poor one, and it was no different this year. The judges had little difficulty in placing:

1 John MacDougall playing Lament for the Laird of Anapool 2 Malcolm McRae, Inverness, playing Donald Gruamach’s March, and 3 Murray Henderson, Craigellachie. The judges were JD Burgess, Dr Frater and Captain Iain Cameron.

Silver Medal Piobaireachd: Thirty-eight competitors entered for the Silver Medal. This competition is much too top heavy and will become more so as the years go by and the committee of the Argyllshire Gathering will have to make some effort to limit the entries for this competition.

It is too much to ask judges to sit for twelve hours and be able to come up with an accurate decision. In this competition the judges were in session from 9.30am till 8.30pm and after a gruelling task they came up with the following decision:

1 John Hanning, New Zealand, Lament for Donald Duaghal MacKay 2 Allan MacDonald, In Praise of Morag 3 R Worrall, Canada, Big Spree. The judges were Dr Leslie Craig and Dr Caird.

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On Thursday the March and the Strathspey and Reel, and the Former Winners’ March, Strathspey and Reel were held in Mossfield Park in a blaze of glorious sunshine. It was unusual to see pipers playing in their shirt sleeves instead of their capes as was the case throughout the summer circuit of the games.

Fifty pipers appeared for the March and 45 presented themselves for the Strathspey and Reel. The March was one of the best contests that has been heard in Oban for a long time and the same can be said for the Strathspey and Reel. There were no breakdowns. The patrons got a feast of excellent piping.

The final decision in the March was: 1 Dr Angus MacDonald, Braes of Castle Grant 2 Murray Henderson, Lonach Gathering 3 Gavin Stoddart, Marchioness of Tullibardine. The judges were Dr Leslie Craig, and P/M and Captain JA MacLellan.

The Strathspey and Reel was as keenly contested as the March and like the March the competitors had to submit six of each, two of which he was asked to play. Here again there were no breakdowns and the pipers were in their top form and the result which emerged was: 1 Dr Angus MacDonald, Islay Ball and Locheil’s Away to France 2 Alfred P Morrison, John Roy Stewart and Pretty Marion 3 Murray Henderson, Arniston Castle and Loch Carron. The judges were Captain Iain Cameron, P/M and Captain Andrew Pitkeathly and Dr Frater.

The March, Strathspey and Reel for Former Winners is a formidable task for any piper. The March is played twice over followed without a break by the Strathspey and Reel twice over.

There were two breakdowns in this event. Hugh MacInnes, after playing a good march twice over went to the wrong strathspey and realising his mistake he stopped. Robert Barnes went completely astray in his reel. Ed Neigh from Ontario did not repeat the third part of his march and broke down on realising his error.

The judges came up with: 1 P/M Gavin Stoddart 2 P/M Iain Morrison 3 John MacDougall. The bench on this occasion was John D Burgess, P/M R MacCallum MBE and Dr Caird.

• Read other excerpts here and here.

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