At times when we were tuning up, we were attracting a number of on-lookers, just like we used to in our old Grade 2 days - and there were many complimentary remarks being made about our sound.

These were echoed by the piping judge on his comment sheets, including "Chanters well set with a pleasant sweet tonal quality - Excellent Drones".

A little bit of uneven blowing towards the end of the performance showed itself again in the High A's but clearly not enough to overly concern the judge - although he rightly commented on it.

The competition performance itself was good with a solid introduction and entry into the first march. Confident playing (although a couple of the guys reckon there was a very slight fingering slip). The finish wasn't quite as clean as it could have been, so room for improvement in that aspect.

Drum corps weren't overly pleased with their performance but clearly good enough to take the first place and both corps contributed to what was an extremely pleasing and satisfying day for the band as a whole - just the way it should be.

It now remains to be seen if we can carry this sort of performance through to the English Championships at Ashbourne next week!