Last month, Ferryhill Town Band made the long journey to Cheltenham to compete in the National Brass Band Championship at the prestigious Cheltenham race course. The contest took place on 15 September in the function room inside the famous main stand.
In all contests, there is a draw, where numbers are put into a box, shaken up and each band takes turns at pulling a number. The Town band were unlucky and drew number 13. And with the contest for their section not getting underway until 2:30pm, the draw meant it would be 6:15pm before the bans was able to gain entrance to the competitors area and 7:30pm before they took to the stage.
“Once inside, we quickly got into our band uniform and waited until we were called to go to the rehearsal room for a final warm up before going on to the stage,” said Brian Chaplin.
“The band put on a brave performance but unfortunately did not get into the prizes. All our soloists were mentioned in the adjudicators remarks, as well as complimentary remarks on the band sound.
“Once finished we loaded up our transport and headed home. As this was the first time we competed at a national level for 14 years, we learned a few lessons for the future.
“The band would like to thank all the people that made personal donations to help the band to make this journey,” added Brian. “Also a big thank you to County councillors Peter Atkinson and Curtis Bihari, West Auckland Parish Council, Bishop Middleham Parish Council, Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust and Tekmar of Aycliffe.
“The band also helped raise funds by playing concerts and attended car boot sales. We also collected over 600 kilos of clothes for the ‘Clothes for cash’ charity.
“Many thanks to all who contributed.”
Ferryhill & Chilton's local community newspaper.
