Fresh from his European triumph in Stavanger, Dr Robert Childs told the waiting supporters and players that both he and fellow adjudicator, Major Peter Parkes had no problems in picking the bands to go to the British Open from the Grand Shield.

”There were four bands today that were clearly ahead of the field. If we could have awarded points then we may have had to separate them by half point margins, but the final result was very clear to us.”

There were four bands today that were clearly ahead of the fieldDr Robert Childs

He went on to say that on this occasion it was not perhaps the quiet playing that sorted out the best from the rest, but intonation, balance and clarity. “We could hear exactly what we needed to in the box today. Intonation, especially with mutes played a major deciding factor, with the best bands overcoming the problems others faced when trying to raise the dynamic levels.”

Senior Cup

Meanwhile Chris Wormald, who was in the box with Derek Broadbent in the Senior Cup, told 4BR that they too had no problem in sorting out all the bands on ‘Elgar Variations’.

”There were four very good performances today, and both Derek and I agreed on all the placings from top to bottom. We too could have separated some bands with half point margins, but there were clear winners and the top four bands did stand out.”

Senior Trophy

Finally, Peter Roberts who delivered a clearly defined, yet somewhat whimsical precise of what he and Geoffrey Whitham had heard in the Senior Trophy on ‘Epic Symphony’.

”It may have been written in 1926,” he said, “…but it is still very hard isn’t it? We enjoyed a number of very good performances today but the winners and qualifiers did stand out.”

Peter’s enjoyable analogy of the piece brought more than a few knowledgable laughs from the audience as he pinpointed where he felt some, but not all had gone wrong.