Category: Comment

A Special Day for Judge Norman at Ballater Highland Games

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By Duncan Watson This year’s Ballater Highland Games gave us a day to remember for a couple of reasons. It started with a presentation to Norman Matheson MBE, a judge at Ballater for over 40 years. Norman has been a kenspeckle figure at the Deeside games, including Ballater and beyond, for, as indicated, over four decades. In his professional life he was a consultant surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. He was…

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Lochaber Gathering Draws for All Events/ World Amateur CLASP Grade 1 Results

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Grade 1 CLASP results from the World Solo Amateur Piping Competition. Margaret Dunn reports: ‘This year’s overall winner, Gill Cairns, received an all expenses paid trip to compete at the amateur section of the Metro Cup in New York, 2017. Thanks to Eric and Maureen Stein for sponsoring this great prize.’ Gill is pictured above with Mr & Mrs Stein. Piobaireachd 1 Gill Cairns 2 Gordon Hislop 3 Andrea Zingg March, Strathspey…

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More from the Worlds: Juvenile and Grade 1

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Thankfully the sun shone through occasionally on the Saturday of the World Championships and we avoided rain apart from some drizzle during the morning, but in general it was rather cold and not the ideal conditions for tuning and playing. Compared to the Friday, the difference in the atmosphere within Glasgow Green was quite dramatic with the buzz from all the bands and spectators, and a gradual build-up of people…

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World Pipe Band Championship: Some General Thoughts and Grade 1 Final Critique

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A few reflections on the overall day before we get to individual band performances. I thought it went on a bit long and some consideration needs to be given to ways of shortening proceedings. I appreciate that to cram in hundreds of performances in a nine-hour period is a logistical nightmare and I do believe that the RSPBA did, and do, a masterful job of doing just that. This notwithstanding, the last band went…

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Ballater Games Results

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A very rainy day in Ballater and just after the last piobaireachd had finished and as the massed band played for the last time, the sun came out! In total, 11 played in the piobaireachd (judged by N Matheson, R Clark and D Watson) and 12 in the light music (judged by J Hamilton and A Fraser). Open Piobaireachd 1. Ross McCrindle 2. Anna Kummerlöw 3. Ben Duncan 4. Alan Clark 5….

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