The first day of the World Pipe Championships saw the first two heats of the Grade 1 competition, two heats of Grade 2 and the Novice and Juvenile Championships.
Glasgow Green was warm and almost perfect for pipe bands – no harsh sun, dry, with only a little breeze. After a hard fought contest George Watson’ College were crowned Juvenile Champions, North Lanarkshire Schools Novice A Champions, and St Thomas Episcopal School, Texas, Novice B Champions. Full results below.
Juvenile: 1 G Watson’s 2 Dollar Acad. 3 St Andrew’s Coll. (NZ) 4 George Heriot’s 5 Preston Lodge 6 Lochgelly High; Drumming G Watson’s
Nov. Juvenile A: 1 North Lanarkshire Schools 2 George Watson’s 369 3 Renfrew Schools 4 St Columba’s School 5 Oban High School 6 Lochgelly High Jnr.; Drumming: G Watson’s
Nov. Juvenile B: 1 St Thomas Episcopal 2 Stirling Schools 3 Dollar Acad. 4 Scotch Coll. No2 (Aust.) 5 North Lanarkshire Schools 6 Kintyre Schools; Drumming: St Thomas Episcopal
Grade 2 finalists for tomorrow are: North Stratton (Canada), Buchan Peterson, Johnstone, Ulster Scots (USA), Uddingston, Pipe Band Club (Aust.), Bucksburn, Texo Deeside, Cascadia (USA), Cap Caval (France), Annan, Celtic (Nelson, NZ).
Regular PP correspondent Ian Forbes writes: ‘In one of my previous postings several weeks ago I suggested that a top band (potentially from overseas) that finished seventh in one of the qualifiers would be excluded from the Grand Final.
‘In the Grade 2 Qualifiers, the City of Dunedin band from Florida USA (last year’s second place) surprisingly did not qualify for the finals, reportedly finishing seventh in a single MSR event (only the top six bands in each qualifier progress to the final).
‘Having no doubt spent vast amounts of money travelling to Glasgow, the band must be absolutely devastated that they miss out on the opportunity to compete in a dual MSR & Medley grand final on Saturday, and potentially improve their overall position.’
Editor Robert Wallace listened to the whole of the G1 Medley first run and the last few bands in the MSR. Here are his comments:
‘I do feel the Friday at the Worlds is growing in stature. There were very healthy crowds for both Grade 1 MSR and Medley. The stands were full for the latter and the standing area was at least as busy as on any Saturday in past years. If the weather holds tomorrow we could enjoy record crowds.
‘I have my top six in this Medley and I consider the top three out on their own. Of course my views do not matter in the final shake down, especially as I was sitting in the stands and not really hearing the detail circle-side. But even so, I don’t think it would be right for me to reveal my thoughts before the final two runs tomorrow.
‘I will say that the standard was high, with at least eight bands all giving very good accounts of themselves and the rest holding up the grade in stout fashion. There were some ‘best ever Worlds’ performances from bands usually associated with the lower end of the grade.
‘I know who my money is on for the title tomorrow but we will have to wait until 7.30pm to know who has actually earned the right to hold aloft the coveted World Champions trophy.’
Just finished listening to complete MSR Friday on livestream, so here to be shot at, lol 1. Inveraray 2. Shotts 3. SFU 4. FMM 5. Boghall 6. Fife 7. SLOT 8. Hawthorn 9. St Thomas 10. Scottish Power 11. Ravara 12. Police Scotland 13. 78th
You old tease! What harm could it do giving your expert and very learned opinion? Your top three I would hazard a guess: Inveraray, Simon Fraser University, Field Marshal Montgomery. On another subject, what a shame that the very talented young people in novice juvenile and juvenile grades are no longer part of the main event. They must be absolutely gutted. This is a shameful way to treat those who will form the future of the pipe bands in the coming decades.
In my journeyman’s opinion, as always all the G1 bands were wonderful. I thought Ravara’s medley was excellent. The stream on YouTube was clear. I’ll never forget standing there in 2013 and listening to Field Marshall Montgomery come up and play. My goodness that was the best sound I’ve ever heard. Nothing has ever come close for me in person. Cheers to all.