Band Tastes Success in Summer March Contests
The band has now broken for a well earned brake at the end of a very busy summer season. As well as our successful summer concert at Batley Town Hall and perforimng in the open air to a sellout crowd at Baildon Prom, the band also took part in the summer season of march contests which take place in several locations around West Yorkshire.
The band had a busy Sunday in June when we took part in two contests on the same day; Morley and Hebden Bridge. Pictured on the right is Philip Varley, the band's principal cornet player, who caught the judges ear outside Morley Town Hall and in the process won himself the Best Instrumentalist prize.
After our early performance at Morley we headed towards the Pennines to Hebden Bridge. Playing towards the end of the contest we marched down the street to Punchinello and then performed the hymn Evening Hymn and the contest March Honest Toil to the adjudicator Sandy Smith, hidden from view in a motorhome in the centre of the town. At the end of a long day the band secured second place overall.
Two weeks later the band played a little closer to home at Brighouse March Contest. It has been several years since we last performed their and the cotest is still as popular as ever. Drawn in the middle of the field the band yet again secured second place overall from the adjudicators. As at the previous contests the band played Punchinello and Honest Toil. However, we did make a change to the hymn, performing The is a Green Hill arranged by Dr. Roy Newsome. This contest saw a change to the band's bass section with Mike Norton joining on BBb bass. In Mike's first contest with the band he helped the rest of his section earn the best basses trophy from the adjudicators.