SPA Professional Contest – Full Results

The annual professional competition run by the Scottish Pipers’ Association was held at the Piping Centre in Glasgow today, April 22. There was a good entry in all categories except P/A. The competition was sponsored by the Piobaireachd Society, McCallum Bagpipes and the Competing Pipers’ Association. President Logan Tannock reported a good standard of play especially among the prizewinners and thanked the stewards who were on duty throughout the day from…

PP Ed’s Blog: Fife Police/ Silver Chanter/ Ensemble Judging/ Cameron’s Winning Tune

Congratulations to P/M Douglas Murray and his brother Jim for their ten years at the helm of the Fife Police band. It is a very difficult thing to take a band from nowhere and lead it into Grade 1 – and then start to pick up prizes among the elite. Jim, now in Western Australia, kicked things off and Douglas built on his work to such an extent that the…

Review of the 2018 Scottish Pipers’ Association Competition

I am not sure everyone appreciates how hard it is to produce a piobaireachd to a high professional standard. At last weekend’s Scottish Pipers’ Association contest, there were 22 competitors, all of them first class pipers. Some play in world championship winning bands; others have won major solo awards. Yet of those I heard we really only had four tunes which reached the level described in my opening sentence.  There…

SPA Professional Contest – Full Results

The annual professional competition run by the Scottish Pipers’ Association was held at the College of Piping in Glasgow today. There was a good entry in all categories. The picture above shows the main winners with their trophies: l to r – John Dew, Gordon McCready and Cameron MacDougall. The young man with the overall trophy and the big grin is Gordon’s son Innes: Results: Piob: 1 Cameron MacDougall, Old…