3rd May 2003 - Senior Cup

Adjudicators: Steve Sykes, Derek Broadbent
Test Piece: Paganini Variations, Philip Wilby
Venue: Winter Gardens, Blackpool

Owing to our poor showing at last year’s Grand Shield, we found ourselves relegated to the Senior Cup contest, a section below. Our appeals to stay up were considered and rejected, but the organisers did change the rules so that bands are now relegated based on the past two year’s performance, not just one year’s blip result. This didn’t help us, but did show that the organisers of the contest were working to improve it.

Coming off a fourth place at the area contest, and with the band playing well, we were confident of getting a result in this contest. We were the highest ranked band in the contest, and we were looking for a speedy return back to the Grand Shield. It is interesting to note that our high placing at the Area contest included beating several bands who were in the British Open contest. Added to this was the fact that last time we played this piece, at the Pontins Contest in 2000, we had won with it after a superb performance on stage.

We were therefore very surprised to find that the 4 Bars Rest preview of the contest had us nowhere. They said that the piece would sort out the good bands from the bad, as it was difficult, and that current form would be a factor, and then completely failed to mention us. They went for (among others) Wingates in second place, who were entering the contest on the back of a last place at the area. Bonkers.

We travelled to Blackpool the night before, and practised in the hotel. Apparently our bus driver was sat up in his room, listening along to our practice and enjoying it, so it must have been loud! We had a very small room with a low ceiling to rehearse in, and by the end of the rehearsal it was somewhat warm.

On contest day we met for a short rehearsal and then waited for the draw, and at that point we would decide when to leave the hotel to travel to the Winter Gardens. When the draw finally came, we had drawn 17th, exactly the same draw as we had at Pontins when we won. We then had most of the morning to relax and we reconvened for a rehearsal at 2pm. After a brief practice, we loaded up the coach and left for the contest. We had an interesting drive around the one way system, before unloading the coach and going into the hall to get changed and set up.

The contest is much more relaxed than the Yorkshire Area, and players were allowed to help us take the percussion equipment onto the stage, and then come back off again for their instruments. This lead to a relaxed set up and we were ready to play quickly.

The hall had very dead acoustics, but the band played well, although quite a few of the soloists split one of their notes. The band’s sound showed through well though, and the piece was very atmospheric. We were happy with it, but disappointed with the splits. Once finished, we got changed and loaded the instruments back onto the coach, which had parked at the top of the hill outside the hall.

After the last band had played, the compère announced that the results would be given out in the main hall at the same time as the results from the Grand Shield and Senior Trophy. This proved to be a mistake, in my opinion, as there were then 60 bands and their supporters all in the same hall, and there were nowhere near enough chairs. There were people stood around in clumps, waiting for their particular contest’s results. I’m not sure why it was done this way rather than just giving the results of each contest at the end in the same hall.

For each contest, the adjudicators gave a quick summary of what they’d heard and what they liked and disliked, and then the results were given out in reverse order. The Senior Trophy was done first, with the top six bands who would be promoted to the Senior Cup read out. Next came our results. First off the soloist prize was awarded, and this went to the Euphonium player from the Jaguar band. This wasn’t too much of a surprise to us, as all of our soloists had blips in their playing. The results were then read out in reverse order, from sixth to first. Each of the bands in the top six would be awarded a place in the Grand Shield next year. When second had been read out and we were still in the bag, there were a few worried faces. We thought we had done enough to win, with the good band sound we had, but were aware of the individual blips in the performance. But it was enough, and we were finally awarded first place.

The full results were:

1. Rothwell Temperance
2. Jaguar (Coventry)
3. Hepworth
4. Redbridge
5. Newstead Welfare
6. Lindley

7. BTM
8. Wingates
9. Newtongrange
10. Ashton Under Lyne
11. Wooley Pritchard Sovereign Brass
12. United Co-Op Crewe
13. Kingdom Brass
14. Staffordshire
15. Laganvale
16. Cambourne
17. Aldbourne
18. Ratby Co-Operatives
19. Pemberton Old Wigan

This was a second good result for the band this year, and this shows the progress the band has made in recent years. After a couple of years of bad results at this event, when we believed we had played well enough to do better, this result restored our faith in contesting a little. We are now promoted back up to the Grand Shield for next year, and once again we will attempt to gain a place in the British Open.

All eyes now look to the All England Masters contest, later in May, where we compete against the top bands again. We hope to improve on last year’s mid-table result.

Tim Sawyer
Percussion
5th May, 2003