Now here's an interesting bit of gossip...
How much influence can you have on what draw you get in a contest?
The reason I ask is not to accuse anyone of "cheating", or, perhaps I should say "competing in a way that is not in the spirit of the contest", but just to clarify in my mind what the rules are.
Just taking Sunday's Third Section at Preston as a completely random example, and correct me if there's any innacuracy:
2 bands requested an early draw in advance: Trinity Girls and Hesketh Bank. They were drawn 1 & 3.
At the end of the draw, the band drawn last (12th) was Eccleston.
At this point, a representative of Greenfield requested a later draw than their current 9th draw. They swapped with Eccleston.
Now I can understand there are reasons why you would want an early or late draw, players working, for example. But I don't see how it can be truly fair for bands to virtually decide what draw they get... The whole idea is for the adjudicator to have NO idea who is on stage. All it takes is for a couple of his friends to say, "XXXX's conductor is on a night shift before the contest, so they're asking for a late draw." or for someone to gossip within earshot, "And old Bill on Bass Trombone has to go and water next door's prize tomatoes, so he really needs to get away early, in fact, his band have requested an early draw."
And with that, the adjudicator can't honestly say he has NO idea who's on stage at the start and end of contests.
Are you really just allowed to SWAP draws with another band?
As I say, I'm certainly not accusing anyone of doing this for the wrong reasons at Preston, but I'm sure you'll agree, with all the controversy over the results, this only adds to it.
Has anyone read 4barsrest.com? Here's what they said: (Full article at
http://www.4barsrest.com/news/detail.asp?id=761 )
"If a spread of 25 points was unusual in the previous section a 28 point difference emphasised Trevor Halliwell’s opinion in this section as well. Critical of intonation across the whole of the playing (with the exception of the winning band in fairness) he did point out that he had noted an definate improvement in the standard of playing since he last adjudicated in the region. This was one of those days, that happens, when a good deal of discussion took place in the bar following the announcement of the results!"
I'll just re-iterate, I'm not complaining about our positioning, or about the positioning of the prize-winning bands, but I do believe I have every right to complain about the ability to practically CHOOSE what draw you get. It doesn't keep the playing field level. Maybe it wouldn't have changed the results in the Third section, but what's important to me is that the oppurtunity should simply NOT BE THERE.
Comment?