Editor’s Notebook: Dollar Contest/ Lochaber Piping Society/ Cupar PB/ EUSPBA Rankings

I hear that Dollar Academy are once more running their popular and successful pipe band contest at the end of May. All grades and D/Ms are catered for I believe. Ample and picturesque grounds at the foot of the Ochils make a perfect setting for such an event. Reasonably easy to get to, the contest always attracts a large entry. If I were running the RSPBA I’d be on the…

Draw for Archie Kenneth Quaich/ Police Scotland Seek Leading Drummer

The Archie Kenneth Quaich is the top prize for amateur piobaireachd players. It is run by the Music Committee of the Piobaireachd Society. The competition takes place at the rooms of the Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society in Edinburgh on February 22nd. The competition is fully subscribed. The judges are PS committee members Derek Fraser and Darach Urquhart. Here is the order of play: 1  Thomson McConnell2  Donald Morrison3  Stewart Allan4…

Background to Historic Juvenile Trophies Explained

Piping historian Jeannie Campbell has sent this following the recent mention of two famous Scottish Pipers’ Association trophies….. On 6th November 1920 the Oban Times announced that the Clan Macrae Society had presented a trophy (above left) in memory of the late Pipe Major Farquhar MacRae to the Scottish Pipers’ Association. The SPA were to manage competitions in connection with the trophy. They also received two other trophies formerly used by…

News from the Piobaireachd Society

The Society are holding their annual conference in Perth from March 28-30. There are four illustrated talks on the Saturday (March 29). These are: ‘Gems from the PS Archive’ – Dr Jack Taylor‘Life, Times and Music of John Macdonald, Inverness’ – Robert Wallace‘Memorising the Great Music’ – Dr Peter McCalister‘Skye: Language, Heritage and the Silver Chanter’ – Dr J Decker Forrest The formal events are followed by a piobaireachd ceilidh…

Editor’s Notebook: Oban & Inverness/ Fifth Major/ Uist & Barra/ Ross McCrindle/ RUC Pipe Band

Entries for Oban and Inverness close at midnight tonight. If you haven’t got your name down you need to move quickly. No late entries will be accepted and this includes all senior events. Of course an entry is no guarantee that you will be allowed to play. This will be decided at a meeting of promoters, with input from the Competing Pipers’ Association, on February 16. Pipers will be notified…