the ideal situation would be where you didnt have to transfer or cancel one card and re-register , and you would have had your lineup sorted out at least a month before the competition, maybe Leyland should have approched the player earlier and all this would have not happened , put yourself in Ashton Bands position, how easy would you find a principal cornet in less than two weeks , reherse with and sign the player? dont put yourself in the situation were people can speculate or start mud slinging.
I am sure this would have not happend with one central registry , I dont know if anyone remembers the "Rhosgate" transfer saga a couple of years ago , a trombonist was signed with an english registered band and came to play at the national finals with Rhos , the trombonist didnt think his card still applied so Rhos had a new " welsh registry card " sorted out. yes Rhos should have cancelled the "english" card but for one reason or another it wasnt.
when his picture was seen in the band press the english band complained that there player was with Rhos , and the band were stripped of the title. I cant remember how it was resolved wether the Bathgate band were given the title and Rhos awarded the money. ( am not comparing the leyland situation with rhos , but shows the flaws in the tranfer system ).
If there was one database with a central card system would make it much easier to manage.