In March this year the band competed at the National Championships held in Tauranga.
This was to be the first Nationals under the new leadership team consisting of Pipe Major Ben McLaughlin, Pipe Sergeant Isaac Turner, Lead Drummer Adam Alexander and Lead Tenor Megan Luckin; with the only officer carrying over their role from the previous season being the A&D’s ‘Sound Man’, Pipe Corporal Richard Bateman.
After a fantastic couple of days of practice and settling into the accommodation, competition day arrived.
The Grade 1 events were held on the Saturday and it kicked off on a bright note with the band gaining a 3rd placing overall in the Street March (with a 1st in Piping) amongst some of the toughest opposition New Zealand has seen in recent history.
After this however, the day wasn’t to be ours. A number of small issues raised their head over the buildup to the MSR and Medley events, resulting in performances below our expectations and high standards and we ended up with a fitting result of 5th.
It was always going to be a challenging year with so much turnover in playing membership throughout the season and with four new leaders in the leadership team, however we achieved a number of positives throughout the season that A&D can be proud of and this has set us up for the next season battle hardened and ready to take it to our opposition!
Thank you all so much for your support over the 2013/14 season, we couldn’t have done it without you!
Regards,
PM Ben McLaughlin