2014 West of England Regional Championships
New Forest Brass have qualified for the national finals and been promoted to the second section for next year! We came second in the third section in sunny Torquay, and had the best three-year total of all the bands in the section, so will be in the second section next year. We were happy with our performance of Philip Wilby's 'Partita for Band', but were still surprised to be read out as runners up!
Well done to everyone, in particular Jean and John who nailed their exposed solos in the 3rd movement, and Tim who had some tricky quick runs in the 4th movement. Thank you to Ian for all his hard work and patience getting us here. Well done also to Lorraine who is the first training member to compete with us - the new "Gong supremo" in Ian's words! Guy's moustache also attracted much attention from the brass banding press!
We had a fantastic weekend, celebrating our success with the traditional curry and less traditional champagne. We are now looking forward to the finals, which will be in Cheltenham in September. We will be competing against the best third section bands in the country. We can't wait for another great weekend!
Third Section
Date: Saturday 8th March 2014
Venue: Riviera Centre, Torquay
Test Piece: 'Partita for Band (Postcards from Home)' - Professor Philip Wilby
Adjudicators: Steve Pritchard-Jones and Frank Renton
Result: (Band, Conductor, Draw):
- Bratton Silver, Simon Carr, 5
- New Forest Brass, Ian Luxford, 10
- St Stythians, James Burns, 9
- Gillingham Imperial Silver, Jim Bennett, 4
- Andover Town, Steve Large, 2
- South Molton Town, Gil Taylor, 13
- Bath Spa, Dave Walker, 14
- Heyl Town, Shaun Marsden, 12
- Cinderford, Kevin White, 3
- Wilton & District, Colin Herbert, 1
- Midsomer Norton & Radstock Silver, Joanne Sykes, 7
- Swindon Brass, Francis Cowley, 11
- Chalford Academy, Steve Tubb, 6
- Launceston Town, Jeremy Taylor, 8
- Bristol East & Kingswood, Ben Vleminckx, WITHDRAWN