Torquay 2010: Reports
We have two reports from Torquay, contest reports are like buses...!
The first one is by Nicky:
Well, what a great weekend for Downton Band! The perfect outcome (almost) to all the hard work put in by the players and Roland (with some help from Steven Mead and first class supporters). Third place, promotion to the third section and a second trip to the National Finals in Harrogate (££! uh oh) in consecutive years. Here's where the hard work really begins!
The band, along with many of the others it seems, enjoyed getting stuck into Saints-Saens Variations. It made a change to have a fourth section test piece with some beautiful melodies and without the token 'unusual' time signatures to tackle. It was test, however, to all positions, having to demonstrate control and finesse throughout, both characteristics not generally associated with Downton Band!
The weekend began in good team spirit with a night in our hotel bar, Alberts, a very classy establishment. This is where 'control' was first required, with some beer left in the barrels at the end of the night. After the drinking (strictly controlled), dancing and darts, the band retired to bed ready for the big day ahead.
After a morning practice, the draw revealed we had a very long wait to play and more control was required throughout the day! Nerves grew for some as the day went on but it was a real buzz (Roland's word, terror was the word that sprang to my mind) to walk out to a totally packed out hall to play, to the best of our ability, the last performance of the day (see adjudicators' comments).
The band celebrated in true Downton style with a (quite civilised at times) band meal followed by lots of 'thirst quenching' and karaoke in Alberts, finally ending in the infamous 'Georgia' played out by Big G in the hotel car park at 10am the following day.
It was a great weekend, giving the band lots to look forward to and lots to laugh back at. Roll on September! See photos here (packet of pork scratchings for the winner of the ‘spot the dart’ competition).
And now for Will's Report:
The majority of the band went up on Friday all leaving at different times of the day. We were split into two different hotels so in the evening we ate in our own hotel.
Saturday morning came and we were all nervous, well I was so that’s at least one person!!! In the morning around 11am we went to have a practice to run through the piece and to relax with some hymns. When we arrived at the practice we were only to go and find out that we were drawn 20th the last band to play of the day! So this really had to be the best performance so we could amaze the adjudicators and to also put fear into the other bands that were listening to us waiting to hear the results! We then had another practise of a few hymns just to get our lips and fingers warmed up, and also for Roland to say his last bit to the band before we went on.
At 4pm we all made our way over, and we sat in the waiting room, you could see that some people were nervous in the bands before us but we didn’t let that get to us, we kept ourselves calm and composed inducing more fear into them. We were then called to register ourselves, this was it, and one band left to play then it was us.
We made our way up the stairs and into the arena, we sat down and we gave the best possible performance we could have dreamed of, ok there were a few unnoticeable mistakes but still it was a brilliant performance. I think it was impossible to play any better than we did as we gave it our all!
Then came the results, after 30 minutes of waiting they had arrived. They started saying places from 6th, when 4th was read everyone was more alert; it felt like time had slowed almost to a stop, “and in 3rd place is the band who played…..” the suspense was killing everyone “20th!” A roar of excitement came from the band and we all cheered and rejoiced, not only had we come 3rd but we had also gained the chance to go to Harrogate again, but this is not what the majority of us were excited about, it was the fact that we had just gained promotion!!! Watch out 3rd section here comes DOWNTON BAND!!!!
Written by Will Hammond – solo cornet 4th man down