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 Site © 1999-2008 Rothwell Temperance Band and All Rights Reserved. |
5th May 2001 - Grand ShieldAdjudicators: David Read and Derek Broadbent The trip began at 5.30pm on Friday, when we met up at the bandroom to load up the coach. By 7.45pm we were in Blackpool, searching for the hotel. The driver went past it, and had to drive around the block, often negotiating streets with parked cars on. One of the kids on the bus shouted “Nice driving!” to which the driver shouted back “Thank you!” We arrived and unpacked the bus, ready for a practice at 8.30pm. 
The practice was held in the local Magician’s Circle meeting room in the basement of the hotel, and the room had a low, material ceiling, so the sound was very dead. Dave Roberts said: “I’ve done it all now, played in a bar!” The rehearsal went well, distinguished only by Andy Catherall, one of our bass players, managing to hit himself on the head with his instrument as he picked it up to play. It could only happen to a bass player… This was to be Jonathan Hammond’s last contest with the band, due to increased work commitments, and so he was presented with a card and gift to thank him for his time in the band. We wish him all the best for the future and there is an open invite for him to come back and play with us if he’s available. Half the band then went into the centre of Blackpool, and the other half stayed in the hotel bar. The evening was a quiet one, with only some unsolicited advice about Dai’s physique from another guest of the hotel livening up the evening. This evening also saw one of the most surreal experiences of my banding career to date – never before have I washed snare drum damper pads in the sink in a hotel room at midnight… Saturday, I was rudely awoken by a huge fan outside my hotel bedroom window, which turned on at 6am, and never went off – it was still on when I checked out of the room at 10.30am. After a couple of hours of hiding under the pillow, and listening to some music on headphones, it was time to get up and get breakfast. And before anyone asks, having the fan was not as bad as sleeping in a room with Moose! (A reference to the Switzerland trip if you don’t know what I’m on about!) 
There was a queuing system in place for breakfast owing to the small dining room, and so we left our room numbers with the staff, and then sat in the bar to wait for them to say the table was ready. This led to the morning’s practice being postponed by ten minutes. We got down to the room, and played for a bit to warm up. It was difficult to play because we could hear one of the bands from the senior cup contest practising above us. We were hoping that we wouldn’t get drawn number one, as we had not brought our hymn books with us, and if we drew first we would have to play the National Anthem before the test piece. A quick attempt to play it from memory caused a decision to be made that if we did draw number one, we would have to borrow a set of hymn books… We then sat around to wait for the draw, which was finally confirmed as 4th. This was quite early in the day, as there were 20 bands competing, and we thought that the draw could in fact count against us in the final results. We played a little more, before loading up the bus and driving to the Winter Gardens. 
We unloaded the equipment we needed, and entered the back of the hall where we were to get changed. The security guard on the door took our tickets off us, which confused us a bit, as normally we have to give them in just before we go on stage! We got changed, and went to register behind the stage. Gemma Howley had problems, as they did not believe that the picture on her registration card was of her, but she was eventually allowed to compete. We went on stage, and for once the percussion section were ready to play before the band were – there’s a first! The piece did not require much percussion, for once. The band played what we thought was an excellent performance, and we came off stage to very good comments from people in the audience. We then had nearly six hours to kill before the results of the contest were announced. Most of the band camped in the bar, but others took to wandering around the town and getting something to eat. I went in to listen to some bands and did hear one band who were excellent, but who had some dodgy moments towards the end of the piece. This band was the eventual winners of the contest. The final results of the contest were: 1. Kirkintilloch 7. Ashton-Under-Lyne We were very disappointed with this result, and could only conclude that the draw had worked against us. We were more than happy with the performance we gave on stage. After the results it was time to get back on the bus and travel back home. The bus driver had fun parking outside the hall, and managed to scrape a car’s wing mirror down the side of the bus, but there didn’t appear to be any long-term harm done. The journey back was quick and quiet, and we were home in Leeds for 7.30pm. So, a disappointing trip in all, and a second eighth place of the year. Mind you, the next contest is the Masters, and this will be our first year competing. An eighth place there would do very nicely thank you… Tim Sawyer 
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