Published: Wednesday, 17th March, 2010 4:00pm

Band back in Championship Section after great win

by Jim Stark

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Band members celebrate on Sunday.

The Lochgelly Brass Band were crowned the 1st Section Scottish Champions at the Rothes Halls on Sunday.

The contest saw bands from all over Scotland converge on Glenrothes to perform a Moorside Suite by Gustav Holst for a very appreciative and large audience and adjudicators Dave Barringer and David Thornton.

After performing from draw number 7, the Lochgelly band players received praise from the knowledgeable audience, but of course it is the opinions of the adjudicators that are all important.

Both adjudicators enjoyed a performance that the band had spent months rehearsing. Dave Barringer summed up his remarks on the band by saying, "A good band sound and well thought out performance. An enjoyable experience" and David Thornton simply said, "Excellent performance". This led the adjudicators to award 190 points out of 200 and award the title to Lochgelly.

The immense delight of the players was hard to miss when the announcement was made, and it was totally understandable.

The victory sees the band return to the Championship section for the first time since 1989. During that time the band slid to a low point in 2001 when they were relegated to the fourth section, the lowest in the banding world.

Since then it has really been onwards and upwards as they achieved progressive promotions through the forth and third sections in 2002 and 2003. In 2005 the band achieved promotion to the 1st section and started building towards the championship section, the culmination of that work was achieved on Sunday.

The real push towards the championship section started three years ago when the band recruited Paul Drury as musical director. Paul has played with the Whitburn Band, Unison Kinneil Band and the Household Troops Band of the Salvation Army and after such a prestigious playing career Paul then turned to conducting six years ago and has had spells with various bands through the country as resident conductor.

However, when his ambition and drive joined forces with that of Lochgelly band the outcome was undoubtedly a winning combination.

The combination almost achieved promotion straight away with a third placed performance in 2008, but alas this was not to be, then at last year's contest the band were placed a credible fifth playing a very technically difficult piece. Sunday was third time lucky and the victory that band members all knew was possible came.

As with a number of players in the band Sunday's victory was a first major contest win for Paul.

The victory was very sweet for all the band members, but especially for 2nd Baritone player Davie Bennison and principal Bb Bass player Neil McCormack who played in the band the last time they in the championship section.

Neil has played with the Lochgelly band for 27 years, but is only a beginner when compared to Davie who has now played with the Lochgelly band for 64 years.

In the current banding movement where players not only move freely from band to band but tend to drift away from the movement due to work pressures this length of playing is rare, but for someone to spend this amount of time with one band is truly rare.

The band now have the honour of attending the National Brass Band Championships held in Harrogate in September.

Whilst the band are looking forward to the challenge of performing at the Harrogate International Centre, they are now looking at how to raise the £5000 that will be required for the trip south of the border.

The first part of the fundraising drive will be a race night in the Phillip Hall in Kirkcaldy on Friday 30th April.

Tickets are available from band members or through the band's website www.lochgellyband.com.