A Snowy 6th At The Area!
Sunday 12th Mar 2006, mid-afternoon
The City of Chester Band braved the elements on Sunday 12th March to compete in the North West Area Brass Band Association Regional Championships at Blackpool, finishing in a very creditable 6th place out of 15, and being awarded a trophy along the way! The Band's day started as it did for everyone else in the North West of England - covered in snow! However, despite Mother Nature's best efforts to prevent the players getting to Blackpool, we made it and, after an early-morning rehearsal at The No 1 Club adjacent to Blackpool FC, arrived at the contest venue - the appropriately-named Winter Gardens. Training Band Co-ordinator Tony Blain was on-hand to draw the Band's order of play, and this year we were drawn to play 5th rather than our usual 1st. After a short walk through a blizzard to the registration location, a relaxed Band took to the stage to perform the test piece - Entertainments by Gilbert Vinter. The performance was probably the best complete performance that the Band had achieved in all the weeks of rehearsal, and we left the stage happy with a job well done. It was at this point that those players that had made their way to the contest independently of the Band coach decided it would be better to leave straightaway because of the bad weather. Those that remained went for a relaxing cup of tea(!) in a local hostelry before returning to the venue to hear the results. It would be fair to say that coming 6th in the contest is a great achievement for the Band, particularly bearing in mind the diffiiculty of the test piece. The result consolidates our position within the 3rd Section and gives all of the players lots of confidence in their individual abilities, as well as the abilities of the Band collectively. Well done all!