The William Grant Foundation and the Sponsorship of Piping

It was reassuring to see Mr Nick Addington, Chief Executive of the William Grant Foundation, the sponsor,  present the prizes at the weekend’s Glenfiddich Championship at Blair Castle. I am sure he would have been impressed by the organisation and the general enthusiasm for the old competition now in its 42nd year, and he will have seen at first hand where the money he disburses on behalf of the Foundation goes…

Glenfiddich Championship Results

The Glenfiddich Champion for 2016 is Roderick MacLeod. He was placed first in Ceol Mor to take the overall title. Runner-up overall was William McCallum with Bruce Gandy in third. The annual competition was held as usual in the Great Hall at Blair Castle, Blair Atholl, Perthshire. Those unable to travel to the event were able to watch it on Livestream which at one point peaked at 7,000+ viewers. The main picture shows the 2016 winner…

PP Ed’s Blog: Gold Medallists of the Queen’s Own Highlanders

Yesterday’s mention of the brilliant playing of P/M Iain Morrison, Lewis, brought to mind this famous picture of all the Gold Medallists of the Queen’s Own Highlanders attending the 1970 Northern Meeting. It features Iain standing top right. I am not sure if everyone is au fait with the individuals and their tunes, and to the modern generation these gentlemen will probably seem as mysterious as the early MacCrimmons. So, history…

Senior Adjudicator Adds Comments to MSR Tune Selection Discussion

  By  Barry Donaldson Following last week’s letter from Alex Gandy from Halifax, Nova Scotia, regarding comments on his tune selection for the Former Winner MSR event at this year’s Northern Meeting, I thought, as was one of the judges involved in the selection of the competitors’ tunes, I might be able to add something to the debate. The following are my considerations on this matter, however they are mine alone…

PP Ed’s Blog: World Drumming/ Gus MacLennan/ Nick pic/Q’land Contest/ Letters

One has to be careful about treading in areas where one’s knowledge is limited, but did anyone else notice that of the top six solo pipe band drummers from Saturday’s World Solos not one is Scottish? Is this something we should be concerned about? I don’t know about other grades, but in the Adult Final we had: 1 Steven McWhirter (Northern Ireland), 2 Michael McKenna (Ireland) 3 Jake Jørgensen (Denmark)…