Saturday 29th October 2005 saw the 88th “Championship of Ireland Bands’ Contest” take place, this year held in the Upper Bann Institute in Portadown. Unfortunately, due to an administrative problem, the full details of which will not become clear for some weeks meant that the band was unable to compete in the contest. This only became clear hours before the contest was due to begin and at a last minute, somewhat heated meeting a decision was made that, as the band had spent almost 2 months in rehearsals for the contest, it should perform the piece anyway for an adjudication only. The test piece for this year is “The Deep” composed by Bram Wiggins, and as in all contest pieces, is testing most sections of the band, a point which did not go un-noticed by the adjudicator. The piece consists of three movements.

1. Bridge Across the Humber
2. Requiem for Lost Mariners
3. Storm and Thanksgiving

The band took to the stage, performed the piece and gave a creditable perormance under the circumstances. We are unable to publish the adjudicators remarks at this time as these are only made known at a later date (approximately 4 weeks). We will update this story when further details are available. The contest adjudicator for today was Mr Jappie Dijkstra from The Netherlands.

The results of the todays contest are as noted below.

Second Grade Brass

Test Piece: THE DEEP (B Wiggins)
First Prize: Symington Cup, £100, Medals & certificate
Second Prize: £80.00 & certificate
Third Prize: £60.00 & certificate
William Herron Trophy to conductor of winning band
Jean Savage Memorial Cup to best cornet section
John Beckett Memorial Cup to best bass section

1st place – Downshire Brass – Conductor: Dr W Hylands
2nd place – St Joseph’s Brass – Conductor: D Beckley
3rd place – Drogheda Brass – Conductor: M Maher

Best cornet section: Downshire Brass
Best bass section: St Joseph’s Brass

Championship Brass

Test Piece: PARTITA (P Sparke)
First Prize: Robert Adair Memorial Cup, £150.00, Medals & certificate and two BBC Radio Ulster broadcasts, 2006
Second Prize: £120.00 & certificate and one BBC Radio Ulster broadcast, 2006
Third Prize: One BBC Radio Ulster broadcast, 2006
James McAllister Memorial Trophy to conductor of winning band
F Rhodes Trophy to best instrumentalist

1st place: Laganvale (Metal Technology) – Conductor: E Ruddock
2nd place: 1st Old Boys’ Brass – Conductor: S Cairns
No third place was awarded in this section this year

Best Instrumentalist: Keith Anderson – Laganvale (Metal Technology) – Eb Bass