There was a good entry for this graded competition. The winner of the ‘B’ Piobaireachd qualifies for the Silver Medal next year. P/M Ben Duncan (above) was Champion Piper repeating his feat at Braemar the day before. C grade Champion Piper was Brodie Watson-Massey, Edinburgh. Open Piobaireachd 1 Steven Leask 2 Sarah Muir 3 James MacKenzie4 Sandy Cameron Judge: J Wilson  B Piobaireachd 1 P/M Ben Duncan 2 Ursa Beckford 3 Ross Miller4 Calum Watson 5 Jonathon Simpson Judges:…

Temper your relief at the lifting of CITES restrictions on blackwood pipes. Ivory is still, rightly, a hot topic. Travelling with tusk mounted pipes may still bring grief. Those precious Hendersons worth the customs risks? No; buy an imitation set from one of our advertisers and sleep easy. With the licence fees gone post November 30 these should be cheaper than before. Journalist and piper Tom Peterkin has been in…

Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia Pipe Band have sent this… Graham Drummond (27) has made the move to join Shotts and Dykehead as Pipe Sergeant following a 10 year tenure in the front rank of Field Marshal Montgomery. He joins his friend and former Field Marshal band member, P/M Emmett Conway, in the leadership team at Shotts. P/M Conway, who succeeded Ryan Canning as P/M of Shotts in September 2018, said,…

By Jimmy McIntosh MBE I do not usually get to listen to the piping programmes from Scotland but was fortunate to hear some of the competitors’ tunes from the Northern Meetings. I also recently spent several weeks in my native country and heard recordings from Lorient Piobaireachd and also the Piping Centre Masters contest. I was quite disappointed with the standard of what I heard. I don’t know what has happened…

By Robert Wallace Bagpipemakers and other musical instrument manufacturers have finally won their battle over the use of African blackwood (ABW). For almost three years UK pipe makers have had to apply for costly licences for every set of pipes they export outwith the EU. These costs have had to be passed on to customers.  An earlier announcement that restrictions were to be lifted last March was put on hold…