Desford Colliery put their contesting marker down for the 2008 season with victory at the Butlins Mineworkers Championships on the weekend.

Combination

A combination of gaining top spot on the set work ‘Life Divine’ and runners up on their Sunday entertainment programme gave them both the William Lippeatt Memorial Trophy as the highest placed Mineworkers Band but also the magnificent Warwick Vase plus the not inconsiderable sum of £6,000 prize money.

Pipped rivals

In the end they just did enough to pip the form band of the moment, Wingates into second place by half a point with Tongwynlais Temperance in third. Fourth place went to a delighted United Co-op Milnrow with Virtuosi GUS and Yorkshire Imps filling the remaining top six places.

The £1,000 Butlins prize as Most Entertaining Band chosen by two Butlins Redcoats went to Bactiguard Wire Brass for their big band set under conductor Paul Andrews.

I was very pleased with the performance of 'Life Divine' which I felt had a real stamp of quality about it, whilst I felt we produced a very good entertainment programme too with a balanced mix of new and oldRussell Gray

Delighted

Speaking on behalf of the Desford Band, representative Paul Bennett told 4BR that although they felt they deserved the victory they didn’t take anything for granted on the weekend. "We are delighted at winning of course, but there were a number of very good bands here and they all played very well, so although we felt we deserved the victory we certainly didn’t take it for granted."

Russell Gray

Conductor Russell Gray, who as had an interesting week to say the least, echoed that sentiment. "It’s been a bit of a week for certain, but I’m delighted at how its turned out," he said.

"I’m deeply impressed by Desford, their attitude and ability, and it’s been a pleasure to work with them – something I hope to be able to do in the future at some time too.

Deeply impressed

I was very pleased with the performance of ‘Life Divine’ which I felt had a real stamp of quality about it, whilst I felt we produced a very good entertainment programme too with a balanced mix of new and old. It was musically very satisfying to work with the band."

Set bar

With adjudicator David Read telling 4BR that they were looking to reward innovation from the bands on the day, Desford’s combination of two brand new pieces from the pen of the ‘must have’ arranger Leigh Baker of ‘Saints Fantasy’ and ‘Deep Harmony’ allied to a sublime piece of trombone playing from Nick Hudson on ‘Stardust’ and three classics of ‘Honey Pie’ and Howard Snell’s ‘Clock with the Dresden Figures’ and the finale from ‘Daphne and Chloe’ set the bar at just a high enough level to deter their rivals and for Desford to retain their title.

New challenges

Russell Gray meanwhile told 4BR that he is looking forward to a number of new challenges in the next few weeks. "I’m off to Norway to work in preparation for their National Championships with the Kleppe Band, whilst I will also be taking Whitbun to the Scottish Championships too.

I’m also hard at work preparing for my first major concert with the Royal Scottish Academy of Music Orchestra, so it going to be very busy."

A full retrospective of the Championship contest — both set work and entertainment will appear on 4BR in the next 24 hours.