Members
of the City of Invercargill Caledonian Pipe Band (from
left) Neil Mogey, Derek Ballantine and Trevor Morton return
to the south victorious last night from the national grade
two championships at Taupo
The Southland Times
March 16, 2004
Kirsty
MacNicol
The City of Invercargill Caledonian Pipe
Band took out the national grade two championship 28 points
clear of its next closest rival at the weekend.
The band convincingly shook off a frustrating
four years as runner-up to win the street march, set,
medley and dress at the national contest in Taupo. In
addition the bass and tenor section finished third in
New Zealand, while drum major Neale Smith ranked fifth
overall.
Pipe major Derek Ballantine said the
band, comprising 17 pipers and 11 drummers, commanded
attention from the moment it arrived at the competition.
"We had probably the biggest band in grade two and
just about as big as grade one". The crowd clapped
and cheered the band, which looked impressive in full
military dress, along the entire street march course and
accolades were just as strong in the musical events, Mr
Ballantine said. "It's just been a weekend of huge
crowd support".
The tangible measure of that was 75 sales
of the band's latest Pipin' Hot CD.
Pipers and drummers were impressed with
the bands teamwork and several approached him about the
possibility of joining the band for its tour to the Edinburgh
Military Tattoo later this year. Some of those offers
might well be taken up as some band members were unable
to take the necessary time off work to travel while others
had to return early for study commitments, he said.
Following Scotland, the focus would be
to repeat the championship win in front of a home crowd
when the national contest is held in Invercargill next
year.