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SOLO PIPING 2002
(Sat. Feb 16th)

The venue, as last year, was the Greater Manchester Fire Service Training Centre. This event has been gradually growing in stature for some years now and this year we saw a significant rise in the number and quality of entries. 20 competitors took part on this occasion, submitting 85 entries spread evenly across the nine categories available. To show this I have this year included the total entry for each category in the prize list below.

Competitors

THE COMPETITORS: (from left to right): Robert Milner, Andrew Markland, John Teasdale, Paul Huntridge (our Steward), Gary Shacklady, Kenneth Whittingham, Brett Shacklady, Martin Bryan, Alan Gagan, Theresa Brown, Peter Doyle, Chris Eyre.
 
There were 20 competitors in all. Only 11 are shown here. The nine others who missed the photo-call were: Richard Brown, Nial Baxter, Neil MacDonald, Jason Fletcher, Keith Arnott, Joe McNulty, James Dillon, Ian Matthews, Donald Bithell.

------------------------------------------------ Prize List -----------------------------------------------------

EVENT
ENTRY FIRST SECOND THIRD
Juvenile March Selection 6 John Teasdale Martin Bryan Brett Shacklady
3/5 min. Medley 9 Alan Gagan Neil MacDonald Peter Doyle
6/8 March 10 Alan Gagan Martin Bryan Theresa Brown
Juvenile Slow Air 7 Richard Brown Martin Bryan Robert Milner
Adult March Selection 8 Alan Gagan Chris Eyre Gary Shacklady
Adult Slow Air 8 Chris Eyre Gary Shacklady James Dillon
2/4 March 10 John Teasdale Peter Doyle Chris Eyre
Hornpipe & Jig 12 Alan Gagan John Teasdale Peter Doyle
March, Strathspey & Reel 11 Theresa Brown Gary Shacklady Brett Shacklady

David Clark was our adjudicator this year. The draw took place shortly after 9.00am and the first competitor in the Juvenile March went on at about 9.45am. The final tune in the M/S/R was played over seven hours later. Competitors taking part in six or seven events often find this to be quite a tiring day. But they do usually get a reasonable break between each performance. Not so with a judge. He needs to keep his concentration firmly on the task in hand for several hours at a stretch - not a easy job.

Rose Fletcher has spent a lifetime promoting and encouraging good piping/drumming in this area. Last October, at the annual Glenfiddich Piping Competition at Blair Castle, she was awarded the Balvenie Medal "for services to piping" . This medal is a most prestigious award in the national piping community and it is the first time, to my knowledge, that it has ever been awarded to anyone in this area.

Rose embodies for us here in this branch the essence of what we are all hopefully trying to achieve - nurturing and encouraging as high a standard as possible in piping and drumming in our local pipe band and solo piping communities.

 

-------------------------------------------- Interesting Statistics ----------------------------------------

Speed (bpm)
Piper
Juvenile
March
Selection
Adult
March
Selection
2/4
March
6/8
March
MSR
Opening March or Hornpipe in Medley Hornpipe
& Jig
John Teasdale 86 (n/a) 78 (n/a) 95 - 132 (n/a) 100 - 133
Richard Brown 70 (n/a) 74 80 76 - 120 - 88 82 (2/4M) 89 - 135
Peter Doyle (n/a) (n/a) 67 (n/a) 67 - 114 - 85 80 (H) 87 - 131
Martin Bryan 61 (n/a) 58 82 (n/a) 91 89 - 133
Ken Whittingham (n/a) 95 (4/4) 73 (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a)
Alan Gagan (n/a) 95 (4/4) (n/a) 85 (n/a) 85 (H) 88 - 140
Neil MacDonald (n/a) (n/a) (n/a)   73 - 114 - 82 84 (H) 86 - 118
Theresa Brown (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) 82 64 - 114 - 79 70 (2/4M) 94 - 126
Chris Eyre (n/a) 82 (6/8) 73 83 70/(breakdown) 89 (H) 93 - 126
Gary Shacklady (n/a) 84 (2/4) 70 84 73- 124 - 84 86 (2/4M) 86 - 129
Robert Milner   (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a)
Andrew Markland 62 (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a)
Nial Baxter 58 (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a)
Brett Shacklady 68 (n/a) 70 82 78 - 118 - 80 78 (H) 87 - 130
Jason Fletcher (n/a) 97 (4/4) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a)
Keith Arnott (n/a) 86 (4/4) 85 81 (n/a) (n/a) (n/a)
Joe McNulty (n/a) (n/a) ........ 81 (n/a) 75 (n/a)
James Dillon (n/a) 84 (6/8) 74 82 (n/a) (n/a) (n/a)
Ian Matthews (n/a) (2/4) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a)
Donald Bithell (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a) (n/a)
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