Recent weeks have been very busy for the Band during the Summer Season. Concerts, Fetes, Carnivals and of course Rehearsals.
Hatherleigh Festival on Thursday 29th July was opened this year by HSB and even though it was a rainy evening it was still very well supported. Robin Wonnacott was unable to conduct as he had been invited to attend the Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, the Band were pleased for him and it was an honour that was very deserved. In his place Terry Hutchings from Torrington took charge and helped the Band get the festival off to a great start. (Thankyou Terry)
31st July was a special evening when the band joined forces with Torrington Silver Band for a massed concert. A wonderful evening was had by eveyone involved and at the end of the night the Torrington Chairman presented Robin Wonnacott with a cheque from the proceeds of the evening for our Harrogate appeal. The band would like to thank everyone at Torrington for this wonderful gesture. Afterwards both bands joined up again at the local Inn for some well earned Refreshments!!!
This years Cider and Pasty evening was successful once again and the Town came out to support us and indulge in the Homemade Pasties and Local Winkleigh Cider whilst listening to the band play in the Town Square. The proceeds from the eveing went to our Harrogate appeal.
The Band now start's the very hard work preparing for the National finals in Harrogate on Sept 26th. David Hayward will be preparing the Band and conduction on stage when we perform our performance of The Royal Mile Suite by Alan Fernie.
If you would like to hear the Band rehearse and see how much hard work goes into getting the music ready, please feel free to come along on Sat 11th Sept at the Vine chapel - Hatherleigh between 7pm and 8pm.
Everyone is welcome.
July 4th Fundraising Update.
Recent events have helped to raise much needed funds to help towards our trip to Harrogate. A BBQ evening at the Tally Ho! was a great social night for Band members and supporters to get together to enjoy an evening of Food & Drink, the food was kindly Donated by Chadds Frozen Foods in Bude. The evening raised £300. The following day a Coffee Morning was held at North Tawton, a fabulous turnout helped to raise the grand sum of £376.
A Quiz night at the Community Centre proved to be a fun packed night for the 13 teams of 6 that had entered to fight it out for the No 1 Spot. Wine and Cheese on the Tables for each of the teams helped take the nerves away!! Another great night was had by all and a total of £400 was added to our Fundraising pot. Special thanks must go to Jane from the Hatherleigh Pottery, Curworthy Cheese, Netty of the Free RangeArt Club and Hallwood Fresh Veg for their help.
Guy our very own Euph player ran the Half Marathon 'Ruby Run' and raised £300, this was a tremendous effort by Guy and the whole Band were so releaved that they didn't have to take part!!
Sponsorship has also been coming in following letters sent out to Local Companies - The Names and Details of each of the kind donations has been added to our Sponsors Page. Please take a minute to look at this page by clicking on the Sponsorship link on the left.
A huge Thank you to must go to everyone for the support shown in recent weeks in assisting the Band.
July 1st - Band welcomes new 2nd Horn for Finals
Marie Morgan has signed for the Band on 2nd Horn in time for the National Finals. Marie comes from a Big Banding family and now plays in the Band along side her Dad on the Front Row and her Uncle who is the Bands Principal Cornet. We welcome her into the Band and hope she enjoys her time with the Band.
June 6th - Quiz Night and Auction
A Quiz Night and Auction was held on Fri 4th June to raise money towards our Finals trip this year by Sandra Collier. A fantastic night was had by all at the Cricket Club, what an great venue for this event and how nice to see it over flowing with people into the Marquee outside.
The 26 Auction prizes were all donated locally and auctioned off between each round of questions by our own Chairman - Mr Robert Barkwell. The Band would like to say a very big thank you to The Cricket Club for allowing us to use the Clubhouse and Marquee and especially Sandra Collier for arranging the evening and finding so many fabulous Auction Items.
The Grand Total for the evening was a fantastic £1700.
Sandra has asked to say a Huge Thank you to everyone for their support.
Next Fundraising Event - Sat June 12th North Tawton Coffee Morning 10am
Please see our engagements page for all Band Engagements and Fundraising Dates
June 3rd - Harrogate News.
Fundraising events are now well underway for our Trip to Harrogate. A coffee Morning in Hatherleigh, a Donation kindly given by Mrs C Barkwell from Lyndridge Care Residential Home and a Donation from the local Rotary Club have all given us a great boost towards our Total.
The younger members in the Band organised a Quiz sheet full of anagrams to be sold, this received a huge amount of interest and must have produced hours of Brain Teasing!!!! A special thanks must go to Jade Morris for selling 124 sheets - Well done. The winners of the Anagram Quiz Sheet were drawn at Band rehearsal on 3.6.10 by Guy, Andrew and James.
1st Cath Pratt + Charlie Makin (London) - Kindly Donated winnings back to Band Funds
2nd Dave Vallance (Hatherleigh)- Kindly Donated winnings back to Band Funds
3rd Trish Wonnacott (Hatherleigh)
March 15th - *Hatherleigh are Harrogate bound*.
The West of England Regional contest on March 13th 2010 was once again a massive day for the Band, competing against 19 other bands they came away with 2nd place and an Invitation to the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain to be held in Harrogate on Sept 26th 2010.
The adjudicators remarked that the top 2 Bands were easy choices, but 3rd and 4th took some deciding.
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!!
Full Report -
March 3rd - Areas and New Signings
The Band would like to welcome 2 new players into the bandroom, their arrival is perfectly timed for this years Regional Qualifying Contest in Torquay. Gerard Morgan joins the front row on 2nd man down, Gerard has played for many of the Top Bands in Cornwall and now his playing skills will really be a great asset to our already strong Front Row. Marcus Vergette comes in to join the percussion Section on Timps, he is a local lad and a very accomplished musician. He has taken to his new role very well. We hope they both enjoy their time with the Band.
A few changes to the rest of the band have also taken place: Mike Boother has taken over the Principal cornet seat for this contest, Greg Morgan has moved down the front row line which gives us a front row to be envied. Marian Quick has moved onto Rep, Robert Barwell is now adding weight to the BBb Basses and Tom Boother is loving his place on Bass Trombone making a great sound.
Once again we are very fortunate to have the team of David Hayward and Robin Wonnacott preparing the Band, with David taking the Band on stage for the Contest.
Feb 19th - Annual Dinner
The band celebrated another year of music making at its band dinner on Friday 19th at Okehampton Rugby Club. Once again the venue and the catering were first class. Some 48 members and families attended and we were pleased to see our old friends Graham, Tina and Lorriane join us for the evening.
After a superb three course meal, we were treated to Jim's skills as both MC and comedian. Jim introduced the three speakers for the evening, our Chairman Robert Barkwell, Our MD Robin Wonnacott and our Bandmaster, Cary Brock. They detailed some of the highlights of the year and of course this has been a winning year with the band taking first spot at Torquay in November under the combined guidance of David Hayward and Robin Wonnacott.
Annual awards were given out also. The Bandmasters award was won deservedly by Louise Mitchell for the way she has improved over the year, her dedication and long trips back from Bristol to attend rehearsal. Martha Fawcett was the very popular winner of young player of the year and also player's player of the year, Martha really has had a great year in the band and her playing is going from strength to strength. Finally Greg Morgan picked up the trophy for Bandsman of the year, for all his hard work behind the scenes, the motivation given to players whilst conducting the Training Band and especially the individual lessons given to players
The band were treated to an impromptu speech by our President, Sally Vergette who congratulated the band on a really good year. The band would also like to thank Sally for her hard work throughout the year, for getting frostbite on several occasions when collecting with the band in the run up to Christmas and for her great support at our concerts and fundraising activities. We are truly grateful.
The evening finished off with a disco led by the Morris family and a special guest (surprise) appearance from 'Gatecrasher' who walked in to our evening and announced that he will be joining the band in the Spring on percussion! Another spectacular entrance from the Gatecrasher.
Another great band dinner and here's to another great year for Hatherleigh Silver Band!
Jan 10th 2010
The annual trip to the Panto started the bands year, this year's story was Alladin with 3D effects. Scary moments were had by all but most importantly it was a great way for all to start the year together. Special thanks must go to Claire Pratt who organised a fabulous day for everyone, luckily after all Snow the weather was on our side and allowed us to make the trip to Plymouth. The usual "Its behind you" was included and also the funny antics on stage, it was the 3D effects that were amazing. The gasps and screaming (from the adults!!) whilst everything was flying around the theatre was truely memerable, apart from seeing the whole audience sat with funny glasses on!!
This day out has proved to be a great team building exercise for the whole band.......heres looking forward to 2011's Panto.
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