The West of England Regional contest on March 13th 2010 was once again a massive day for the Band.
Competing against 19 other bands at the English Riviera Centre in Torquay they came away with 2nd place and an Invitation to the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain which will be held at the International Conference Centre in Harrogate on September 26th 2010.
The day consisted of 2 Rehearsals before taking to the stage late in the day to give a very confident performance with superb solo playing noted by the adjudicators, this was also well received by a large appreciative crowd that had come in to listen to our performance, also heard within the Arena was some rather loud....whooping!!
The hard work that Robin Wonnacott and David Hayward have both put in has brought the band it's best contest result to date.....well at least until the finals we hope!! Everyone was over the moon with the excellent result and celebrated well into the night after returning to Hatherleigh.
The hard work now starts to raise the funds to enable the band to travel to Yorkshire to represent 'The West of England' and more importantly the name of 'Hatherleigh'.
The Band will have the furthest distance to travel to compete against the best bands in the country in the finals later this year. Everyone will now be using the recent results as foundations to build on and work towards a great result in Harrogate.
Hatherleigh Silver Band would like to congratulate both Test Valley Brass & Downton on their success in qualifying for this years Finals.
4barsrest - Comments There was a great atmosphere all day in the Arena Hall at the Riviera Centre, where under what looked like a massive Bedouin tent roof, 20 bands came and thoroughly enjoyed themselves on Philip Sparke’s Test piece -‘Saint Saens Variations’. Competitors and Supporters all commented that for the first time for quite a number of years that they had thoroughly enjoyed the weeks of preparation for the contest.
It was also plain to see as well as hear that they were not exaggerating either. The hall was invariably close to capacity for all 20 bands, whilst for the results there wasn’t a spare seat in the house.
Given that next door in the main Forum Hall two other contests were going on at the same time, it gave a clear indication to just how popular Philip’s work has proven to be.
Adjudicators, Stan Lipeatt and Jappie Dijkstra were not going to miss an opportunity like that to tell the assembled masses just what they thought of what they had heard - and both judges were full of praise for all the competitor’s efforts.
Jappie spoke with a note of pride in his voice after he revealed that the piece had been chosen in 2009 for a number of competitions on the European mainland and had proven to be just as popular there.
”It’s the right choice for the right contest’, he said. “Philip Sparke is a master for writing works not just at the very top level but also for contests such as this. He always produces a piece that is musical and that tests the players and conductors.”
Although he went on to say that didn’t mean it was an easy work, it was one that could be mastered if bands managed to play with the right lightness of touch in terms of articulation whilst maintaining good intonation. The vast majority of the bands did that he added – making the task of picking the winners that much harder.
”We agreed most of the day with our positions for the bands”
”The first two bands were very clear for us, but we did have to deliberate over the bands that came third and fourth. There were very credible performances today from start to finish and I have to give a special mention to the overall standard of solo playing, which we both felt was first class.”
The two bands that he was talking about were eventually revealed as Test Valley Brass and Hatherleigh Silver.
HATHERLEIGH gave a full blooded performance under the baton of David Hayward, which had just enough extra sheen about it to pip Downton on the day, and send them to Harrogate for the first time in many a year,
2010 Finialists Fourth Section: Sunday 26th September
Amersham Band
Battle Town
Besses Boys
Crwbin
Dinnington Colliery
Downton
Dumfries Town
Farnworth & Walkden
Hazel Grove
Hatherleigh Silver
L.G.B. Brass
Langholm Town
Marken Rasen RPC
NASUWT Riverside Concert
Rushden Town
Stape Silver
Shipston Town
Test Valley Brass
Trentham Brass
Upper Rhondda Brass
Worsbrough Brass
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