Overall feelings are one of disappointment at not retaining the English Championships
This was a 'heavy' day of playing in three events. The first one starting at 9.30 meant an early start to get to the venue followed then by the challenge of getting a sound and maintaining it through until the last event at 14.30
One of the chanter reeds was giving problems for the first event and had to be changed before competing in the second event and although the sound was good in the tuning park prior to going into the last event it didn't hold (perhaps a combination of reeds and piper stress)
Most unusual for us, the drones caused us a few problems during the day - we'll need to take a closer look at what's happening there
GRADE 4
3rd Piping : 2nd Drumming
| 1 | University of Bedfordshire |
| 2 | Wolverhampton |
|
|
Greater Manchester |
| 4 | Scots Guards Association (Manchester) |
| 5 | RAF Waddington |
| 6 | Essex Caledonian |
| 7 | Scunthorpe & District |
| 8 | Warrington |
| 9 | West Midlands Fire Service |
| 10 | Greater Manchester Army Cadet Force |
| 11 | Nottinghamshire Police |
| 12 | Beverley & District |
Not such a good performance as at Ashbourne
Decent sound but a couple of piping slips left us feeling this was an OK performance but not a 'sparkling' one and clearly our use of harmonies went against us in the eyes of the judge
GRADE 4 MSR
1st Piping : 1st Drumming
| 1 | Wolverhampton |
| 2 | University of Bedfordshire |
| Scots Guards Association (Manchester) | |
| 4 | RAF Waddington |
| 5 | Greater Manchester Army Cadet Force |
| 6 | Nottinghamshire Police |
Again, not what we would consider a 'sparkling' performance but quite solid with only one small piping slip
GRADE 3
5th Piping : 4th Drumming
| 1 | West Midlands Police |
| 2 | RAF Waddington |
| 3 | Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service |
| 4 | Greater Manchester |
| 5 | Wolverhampton |
| 6 | Scots Guards Association (Manchester) |
| 7 | Essex Caledonian |
| 8 | Greater Manchester Army Cadet Force |
| 9 | Beverley & District |
| 10 | Nottinghamshire Police |
The tone in the tuning park before the grade 3 was good - strong and solid
Unfortunately the tone didn't hold up in the arena becoming increasingly sharp as the performance progressed. No serious mistakes but poor integration in a number of places
The final result was probably a fair outcome in our eyes based on the performance we'd given.