The National Championships were held in Nelson this year and A&D were fired up to put their best foot forward. Looking to not only consolidate our recent results at Palmerston North Square Day, but continue to push our way back in the fold of New Zealand’s elite pipe bands.
The build up to the Nationals had been relatively smooth, with plenty of progress having been made into the new year. We arrived in Nelson excited, but also nervous with the previous National’s disappointments still fresh in our memories.
Sound extraordinaire, Richard Bateman, was in the zone and slowly but surely built a sound that will be remembered as one of A&D’s finest in living memory.
After a solid effort in the Street March event on the Saturday morning, we headed to the competition ground feeling confident that we were there or thereabouts and that it was up to us on the day to put quality performances on the board.
The MSR was solid enough, with a couple of nervous moments throughout, but good nonetheless. As we built up for the Medley, we were starting to feel the effects of the day take its’ toll on the band and we were running out of energy. The call was made to play as little as possible to ensure that we were able to produce a quality performance on the board, which turned out to be an excellent decision, albeit at the expense of drone tuning stability.
The Medley was of suitable standard to warrant straight firsts in the piping, which led to our overall result of best Pipe Corps in New Zealand.
As stated in the subject line, A&D came 2nd overall in grade 1 and 1st in piping, but we also came 3rd overall and 1st equal in piping in the Street March event with the Canterbury Caledonian Pipe Band.
Needless to say, A&D are extremely proud of the efforts put in by the membership last season, which resulted in a significant step up in terms of quality of performance, which was duly reflected by our progress results-wise.
For now though, it’s back to the drawing board to work on the areas that we need to improve and continue to attract players that will enable us to deliver the level of performance that we’re striving to achieve.
Thank you once again for your continued support. We feel it and use it as motivation to do you proud whenever we perform.
Regards and best wishes,
Benjamin McLaughlin
Pipe Major