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Blaenavon Town Band A Third and Bronze Award at Treorchy |
Saturday 17th November 2007
Treorchy Contest Report
Lt. Col. Chris Davies OBE of the Royal Marines was the adjudicator for the Second Section at this years Treorchy Contest held at the Parc and Dare Theatre. In his remarks he stated that California Legend was a very stiff test for bands and that the contest had been very close. He commented on one band whose bass drum was too loud.
It turned out that he was talking about us. Still we finished in 3rd place with 184 points.
Second Section results:
1. Penclawdd Brass Tony Small
187
2. Ogmore Valley Ivor Barnett 185
3. Blaenavon Town Gareth Ritter 184
The best soloist was the Cornet Player for Penclawdd.
The Junior Band also competed and finished with a Bronze Award from adjudicator David Horsfield who commented on the enthusiasm of the junior players.
The Junior Section results were:
Chepstow Town Tomos Zqgorskis Silver Award
Mid Rhondda Carol Flanary Davies Silver Award
Blaenavon Town Juniors Evan Smith Bronze Award
On Saturday both the senior and junior bands compete in the last contest of the year at the Parc and Dare Theatre, Treorchy.
For the senior band this year has been full of ups and downs. In January we had a good showing at the Gloustershire BBA contest on Coleford and then our Conductor resigned 4 weeks before the Area Contest. Hard work and rescheduled rehearsals resulted in Andrew Jones taking the band to Swansea for a decent but ultimately unsuccessful performance. Ebbw Vale in May was even worse – last place after what we thought was a fine performance of Dimensions. New MD Gareth Ritter was pleased with the performance but not with the result. However, on the same piece 8 days later we won at Weston-Super-Mare !
During the summer we prepared for the National Eisteddfod in Mold. 10 hours on a bus in August was not much fun but we had a great day out and managed a very pleasing 2nd place. This was repeated in Wychaven with another 2nd place in a very strong field. 2nd place seemed to be par for the band as we gained the same result at Burry Port playing Laudate Dominum.
The work the band has put in this year has been tremendous and has been recognised by an entry in the World Rankings top 200 Bands.
Now we are near the end of the contest year and it is California Legend by William Broughton that is the very challenging test for the Treorchy contest. Gareth and the Band has been working their socks off getting to grips with the technical and musical difficulties of this piece. There is no doubt that this is a very difficult test for this level and we are not expecting a full turnout of bands in the Second Section.
For the junior band it has been a year of steady progress. The Crosskeys contest produced a performance that warranted the Most Improved Band award and the summer course and subsequent publicity resulted in a successful recruitment of new learners to the band. For many in the band Saturday will be the first time they will have played to any kind of audience let alone an adjudicator! The program of music reflects the lack of experience of the band but should show off the progress made and the enthusiasm of the youngsters.
Reports on how we got on will be posted here soon.