It has been announced that the Ratby Co-operative Band will replace Desford Colliery as the second Midlands regional representative at the Championship Section National Final at the Royal Albert Hall next month.

It follows Desford's decision not to accept their invitation to compete and will see Ratby make their first ever appearance at the event on Saturday 2nd October.

The decision will mean that at present 19 bands will compete at the contest, as no replacement for the cooperation band from Scotland has been announced.

Third place

Ratby was placed third at the 2020 Midlands Regional Championships behind champion, GUS and Desford — the second successive year they had just missed out on an automatic qualification place.

Kapitol Promotions' invitation to a third placed band at an Area contest is not without precedence, whilst for many years adjudicators had the discretionary ability to invite an additional 'qualifier' if they felt the level of performance at the regional contest merited it.

The band are delighted to have been in a position to accept, and are ready for the hard work in the time givenRatby Co-operative Band

Delighted

On revealing the news on their Facebook page the band stated: "The band are delighted to have been in a position to accept, and are ready for the hard work in the time given."

The band will be hoping to give their fund-raising efforts for Kensington a boost this weekend as they compete at the Doctor Martin Wainstone Cup contest.