Glenfiddich Championship Announce Invitees and judges

The organisers of the annual Glenfiddich Championships to be held at Blair Castle on October 29th have invited the following pipers to compete: Roderick MacLeod William McCallum Alasdair Henderson Angus MacColl Ian K MacDonald Bruce Gandy Finlay Johnston Jack Lee Stuart Liddell Iain Speirs Judges for the ceol mor are: Iain MacFadyen, William Morrison, Jack Taylor; ceol beag: Ian Duncan, Ian McLellan and Iain Murdo Morrison. Glenfiddich were in the…

PP Editor’s Blog: Florida Academy Details/ CLASP Results/ Chatsworth/ Royal Tartan

The 2017 South Florida Pipe & Drum Academy will take place in Fort Lauderdale from February 15 – 19 inclusive, it has been announced. The Academy will be held in Boca Raton, at 6500 S Congress Ave, hosted by Boca Raton Fire Rescue and the City of Boca Raton. The picture above shows instructors and the Class of ’16. This will be the third year of the popular Academy. Organiser Noah Morrissette said:  ‘We…

Cowal Gathering and the Need to Recognise Our Champion of Champions Winners

A few weeks ago we asked the question ‘Do we need to rethink the Champion of Champions Awards’? It was borne of a notion that these awards, when announced at the Worlds, get lost amid all the other excitement and celebration, writes the Editor. Our view is that the Champion of Champions titles should not be sniffed at. As we pointed out, to come top of the league says a…

New Vale Leading Tip and new Corps Announced

The Grade 1 Vale of Atholl Pipe Band have appointed Northern Ireland’s Adrian Hoy as their new leading drummer. Adrian’s appointment is a huge boost for the Perthshire band and was announced as they prepared to play at the last competition of the year at their local Pitlochry Highland Games. Earlier this week the band announced the departure of Lee Lawson as leading tip: ‘Lee took a sabbatical from the band…

Reflections on the Argyllshire Gathering 2016 – Silver & Gold Medals

I judged the Oban Silver Medal with Ian Duncan and Malcolm McRae. I remind readers of the statement top left on this page. The standard has been better. I don’t know if it was the tuning facility in the rather dank Ceilidh House, but too many pipers just didn’t have settled instruments on which to demonstrate their prowess. As stated earlier, the winner was Nick Hudson, Pittsburgh, USA. His tune…