Pipe Band Commentary – Readers Have Their Say

Our readers have been exercising their keyboards covering Worlds qualifying, bands travelling to compete and various arrangements at the recent Scottish Championships…… Dave Gatcum: Perhaps it’s time to look at lower grades qualifying to compete at the Worlds. I’m not sure it’s a great thing to have lower grades playing at silly o’clock in the morning to see if they qualify – spending thousands of pounds to be told they’re…

Skye Gathering 2026 Senior Results

The annual, two-day Skye Gathering piping competitions began today (Aug 4) in Portree. Twenty-eight entered for the Dunvegan Medal contest for which pipers have to submit four MacCrimmon tunes. Previous winners are excluded and play for the Col. Jock MacDonald Clasp to the medal. The winner of the 2026 medal was Angus MacPhee (pictured above with the medal, courtesy Cailean Maclean). Angus had been second in this contest for the…

Skye Gathering/ Morar Results/ RSPBA £50k CEO

Skye Gathering is underway in Portree with the hotly contested Dunvegan Medal the centrepiece. Twenty-eight pipers are vying for the award, all submitting four MacCrimmon connected tunes. The winner will be announced late afternoon. Here is the order of play: S Klinger, M Kessler, K Bowes, S Leask, T Krogh, E Cameron, B Watson-Massey, A Kummerlöw, G Canning, G Barclay, A Hall, J Elder, C Carn, E Gaul, A MacPhee,…

Observations on the 2026 Pipe Band Championships

The Scottish Pipe Band Championships at Dumbarton last Saturday completed the first four majors of 2026. The results have been quite variable this year so it is difficult to predict who might prove to be this year’s World Championships winner – there are a variety of factors which might affect the outcome.   Firstly, however, it was pleasing to see the return of the five majors this year, there having…

Editor’s Notebook: Worlds Preview/ G2 Qualifying/ Games News/ Glasgow Police LP

Congratulations to Inveraray after their big win at the Scottish last Saturday. It was a much-needed triumph for the band with only three weeks to the Worlds. I’m told that they had a few of their leading players back in the ranks after their rather ring-rusty performance at the Euros at Perth. It’s clearly all to play for among the top outfits, stating the obvious I know, but with the…