The popular Northern Winter School, held each November in Germany, opened for registration at the weekend and is already sold out, the organisers report. Principal Ronnie Bromhead said: ‘After opening the online booking portal on February 1 we have received significantly more booking requests than we could give places. ‘Because of this flood we are doing our very best to fulfil all individual requests, but unfortunately some may not get…

Response to last week’s comments on the dearth of competition reports in the piping world….. In regards to the suggestion that competition reports are a dying art, it is actually true, writes Duncan Watson. I have expressed this to a few piping associates from whom I obtained similar responses. It should be a pre-requisite, particularly for judges in the highest rank of Senior Judge. They should be required to occasionally…