4BR has been informed that the organisers of the 2010 Action Research Youth Championship have disqualified Youth Brass 2000 following an official appeal.

Appeal lodged

Youth Brass 2000 conducted by Chris Jeans was disqualified from the second place they achieved at the contest at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool in February following an official appeal lodged by a competing band.

Genuine mistake

Event organiser Gary Walczak confirmed to 4BR that the result of the competition has now been amended and that trophies have been returned and prize money reallocated.

"Unfortunately there was a genuine mistake by Youth Brass 2000 at the contest, which led to an appeal," Gary told 4BR. "This was investigated and Youth Brass accepted that the error had been made and that the rules of the contest had to be applied."

we are grateful to everyone involved that the decision we have had to make was undertaken and accepted in the spirit of what is a wonderful youth competitionGary Walczak

Age restrictions

4BR understands that with changes to the age restrictions for the contest this year, the band had mistakenly allowed two players to perform at the contest.

The new rules state that players must be under the age of 18 as at the 31st August in the year prior to the contest, to tie in with the academic school year.

Appeal

Four members of the eight strong Action Research organising committee heard the appeal, which took place following a written submission that was registered within the appropriate time limit after the contest.

The written decision of the committee was subsequently sent to Youth Brass 2000, who did not appeal against it.

Accept responsibility

Youth Brass Chairman Dave Collins told 4BR: "We are great supporters of the Action Research event and fully accepted that our genuine mistake meant the rules had been inadvertently broken. It is a great disappointment to us, but it was our fault and we accepted the responsibility."

Deal of good

Gary Walczak hoped that a great deal of good would come from the unfortunate outcome. "We are very sympathetic to the bands involved, especially as there has been some misunderstanding over the new age dates. However, we did inform the bands that the rules will be applied, and we are grateful to everyone involved that the decision we have had to make was undertaken and accepted in the spirit of what is a wonderful youth competition."

Grateful

Dave Collins echoed the sentiments of Gary Walczak. "Action Research is a wonderful event and one that we will continue to support. We are grateful to Gary for the way this has been sorted out. We will be back in 2011 though, and we hope this is a bit of a wake up call to all bands to make sure they are crystal clear about the contest’s rules."