Members of the Inverell Pipe Band have returned from a tour of Scotland greatly enriched for the experience and with the honour of being part of the top performing Australian pipe band in their section of the World Pipe Band Championships.

Inverell Pipe Band member Mark Harmon said the six members that made the trip to perform with the Manly-Waringah Pipe Band really enjoyed the experience, which saw them travel to many different towns throughout Scotland to compete.

“Our first contest was at a town called Dundonald which was just like being home and performing at Delungra or Bundarra.

“The people were so friendly and down to earth, we performed at the contest and came sixth with the Manly-Waringah band and then the townspeople saw us at the Bowling Club and asked the country Aussies to get up and play for them, they were singing along to the songs and it was a great start to the tour.”

The next contest the band was in was in Perth where the band met up with two other NSW pipe bands and came 19th out of a tight field of 24 bands in grade four.

Despite spending a lot of time practicing and performing, the Pipe Band members still got to look around Scotland and also see the Edinburgh Tattoo.

“When we visited Edinburgh we were just blown away by the place, to think there is 2000 years of buildings in this city, when we see a building that’s 150 years old we think it’s old, the history was amazing.

“We also went to McCallum and saw how bagpipes were actually made and got to sample a bit of Scottish whiskey as well.”

On Saturday August 16 was the day the men had been waiting for, the World Championships held in Glasgow Green.

The Manly-Waringah Pipe Band was the first to perform out of 51 bands in Grade 4 something Mark said was a relief.

“It was good to get it over and done with so we could sit back and listen to everyone else playing before we found out our results.”

To qualify for the championship round the band had to come in the first three places in the qualifying rounds and when the results came through they heard they had come in fourth position.

© 2008 Inverell Times

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