Our surprise appearance at the National Finals had really messed with preparation for the the Annual SWBBA contest in Torquay: mixed availability of player for rehearsals over the summer holidays normally make preparation for the November contest challenging at the best of times, so what to do when we’ve got an expected bonus appearing at Cheltenham in September?  Well, you could pick an easy piece and hope to bang it into shape quickly… or you could pick something to stretch players and develop the band.  Which is exactly what Steve Tubb did – admittedly some players had seen Chivalry by Martin Ellerby before, but there were plenty of players in new seats, and it’s not an easy piece.

In typical Chalford style, although it was a tough ask but the band pulled together and in the last week before the contest were putting in some really fine consistent performances. As Steve said “the result now is a unimportant really – we’ve developed as a band, and that’s what really matters”.  The performance was perhaps tinged with nerves, although the soloists were excellent, but it wasn’t quite a polished as perhaps we’d hoped: a fine performance none the less, and 6th place behind some good bands was no disgrace.  Even the adjudicator acknowledged that we were “obviously a good band”.

1. Lympstone (Chris Spreadbury)
2. City of Cardiff (Melingriffith) M1 (Christopher Bond)
3. St Austell Town Band (Adam Glynn)
4. Helston Town Band (John Berryman)
5. Lanner & District Silver Band (David Johnson)
6. Chalford Band – (Steve Tubb)
7. Sidmouth Town Band (Adrian Harvey)
8. Roche Brass (Keith Maxwell)
9. Wootton-under-Edge & District (Jim Bennett)
10. Glastonbury Brass (Kevin Smith)