scaba Spring Contest

[Accidental]

I've just received our schedule for the scaba Spring Contest. As with Folkestone last October, the contest is limited to 30 bands only, on a first come, first served basis with scaba member bands given preference over non-member bands in the first 14 days. If your band's interested, make sure you get your entry in quickly.

Hopefully the new date and venue (The Hawth, Crawley on 29th April) will make it easier for some bands this year, so who's up for it? Friary will be there, and it would be really good to have some competition in the top section (please!)

 

[MoominDave]

it would be really good to have some competition in the top section (please!)

We've tried to enter the autumn contest a couple of times now, and the combination of priority for member bands with a hard limit on the number of entries has made it irritatingly impractical. Both times, the situation was that we had got our entry in in plenty of time, were put on the reserve list, and told that we might or might not get a place, and should wait around on SCABA's pleasure to find out until far too close to the date of the contest for it to be possible to reschedule anything else should it not come through. I suspect that we won't bother trying to enter the autumn contest again - this faff messed up our autumn scheduling both times.

This is a bit academic, as I see that the spring contest has separate championship and 1st sections, but it would be useful to know for future reference - is this contest as oversubscribed as the autumn one? i.e. Is it actually possible in practice for non-SCABA bands to enter this one with a reasonable likelihood of getting a place, unlike the autumn contest?

 

[Accidental]

fair points Dave - but Folkestone/Autumn was always the busier contest and having to run on one day for the last couple of years unfortunately meant some bands were always going to miss out. For some bands at least, a reserve list was better than a flat no then finding out someone else had withdrawn and they could have gone after all.
I realise the 2 weeks preference for scaba members makes it a bit more tricky for non-member bands, but do I think its ok that the bands paying a membership benefit from it.

Converseley, the Spring contest has been undersubscribed for some years now, and this year could well be the use it or lose it one.... hopefully the venue and date change will help, as Crawley is a little more accessible than Hove and its moved a bit later from the usual issues of the Areas, Easter, St George's Day and Mothering Sunday.
Over the last few years at Hove, entries have averaged less than 20, so based on those numbers you have a very good chance of getting in! Friary have continued to support this contest but for the last three years we have played in a section of one and just used it as a dry run for Blackpool, it would be great to have a 'real' section again.

 

[MoominDave]

Looking at the date, I shan't be there in any case - I have an accompaniment gig in Oxford that day... Just felt that it was worth raising the point for those of us who have been frustrated by the autumn entry procedure in the past - we're a bit too far away for SCABA membership to make any sense - about the same time to Folkestone by road as getting to Yorkshire! But we're in the same area, and it would be nice to take part in such events from time to time, at least.

 

[Bungle]

Good luck to the bands taking part today. It's been a long time since I've played at the Hawth.

 

[Will the Sec]

Roads are treachorous - especally the M25. Drive carefully, people.

 

[Will the Sec]

Results courtesy of 3 Bars Drunk Dry.
Comments from AM. Effort. All worthy. Choice. Too difficultNot showing strength. listening for basics. Tuning a key factor

March prize Cobham.

3. Wight Brass
2. Cobham Band
1. Simon Langton Brass
SLB took all instrumental prizes and conductor's prize.

 

[scaba Media]

scaba Spring Contest 2012 results

scaba Spring Contest 2012​

The Hawth, Crawley​

29th April 2012​

Adjudicator Alan Morrison FTCL LRAM​

Results
Third section
Place Band Conductor Draw
1 Simon Langton Brass Dave Cutting 3
2 Thee Cobham band Robin Langdon 2
3 Wight Brass Steve Burton 5
4 Patcham Silver James Benka-Coker 4
5 Pangbourne & District Silver Stewart Lewins 1
Best Instrumentalist - Solo Cornet Kirsty Attwood 3
Best horn section Simon Langton Brass 3
Best solo cornet section Simon Langton Brass 3
Conductors prize Dave Cutting - Simon Langton Brass 3
Best March The Cobham Band Robin Langdon 2

Youth section
1 Shanklin Town Youth Malcolm Lewis 1
Best instrumentalist Ashley Wicks - Shanklin Town Youth 1
Conductors prize Malcolm Lewis Shanklin Town Youth 1
Best March Shanklin Town Youth Malcolm Lewis 1


Second section
1 LGB Brass Ian Stewart 7
2 Uckfield Concert Brass Nick Morris 2
3 Cranbrook Town Ian Lanceley 4
4 Hangleton Richard Baker 3
5 Snowdown Colliery Welfare Keith Twyman 6
6 Brighton & Hove City Brass Matthew Hackett 8
7 Shanklin Town Brass Malcolm Lewis 5
8 Chinnor Silver David Pegram 1
Best Instrumentalist – Solo Cornet Vicky Mace Cranbrook Town 4
Best Trombone section – LGB Brass Ian Stewart 7
Conductors prize Ian Stewart LGB Brass 7
Best March Cranbrook Town Ian Lanceley 4

First section
1 Horsham Borough Andrew Kershaw 3
2 Thundersley Brass John Ward 5
3 Tilbury Andrew Austin 4
4 Fairlop Brass Kevin Jordan 1
5 BAE STSTEMS Brass Keith Woodger 2
Best bass section Thundersley Brass 5
Best horn section Horsham Borough 3
Best tenor trombone Karen Palmer – Horsham Borough 3
Best bass trombone Paul Harrison - Horsham Borough 3
Conductors prize John Ward – Thundersley Brass 5
Best March Horsham Borough Andrew Kershaw 3
Championship section
1 Friary Guildford Melvin White 1
2 Brass a Musica Michael Dils 2
Best bass section Friary Guildford 1
Best instrumentalist Chris Straker – Friary Guildford 1
Best March Friary Guildford Melvin White 1

 

[Red Elvis]

I wuz robbed !!!! £3.90 for a pint ???!!!!

Congrats to Horsham in our section though - what did they play out of interest ? (we were in the warm up room at that point).

 

[englishgill]

Thanks Red Elvis - we were pretty chuffed with the result!

We played Rosehill as our march and Mountain Views for the test piece

 

[Red Elvis]

Well played Gill !!
Play list (for the geeks ) in 1st section then looks like this as far as I can remember:

Horsham - Rosehill and Mountain Views (Moren)
Thundersley - Knight Templar and Blazon (Graham)
Tilbury - Florentiner March and Cross Patonce (Richards)
Fairlop - Star Lake and Variations on Laudate Dominum (Gregson)
BAE - ? and Cross Patonce.

 

[Will the Sec]

BAE's March was Semper Fidelis.

Fun day catching up with all and sundry, though I managed to completely miss Andy Wooler again. Probably 'cos he wasn't wearing a lurid bright green jacket!

Many thanks to every Stewart who helped out, and to the organisers.

Just one gripe about Crawley as a venue - the weather...

 

[scaba Media]

Ah! The weather - scaba has nothing in their constitution on that.

Will see what we can do about that!!

Many thanks for your kind words though - we thought it was a good day - hope everyone else agrees.

Sally C

 

[Laserbeam bass]

BAE's March was Semper Fidelis.

Fun day catching up with all and sundry, though I managed to completely miss Andy Wooler again. Probably 'cos he wasn't wearing a lurid bright green jacket!

Many thanks to every Stewart who helped out, and to the organisers.

Just one gripe about Crawley as a venue - the weather...

Oi, Copyright/Intellectual property infringement. Email from solicitors on it's way

 

[Bungle]

We were pleased with Cranbrook's result and for Vicky who took the soloist prize. We played Westward Ho and Glorifico Aeternum by Dean Jones. Really enjoyed playing Glorifico Aeturnum, would be good for an areas test piece if there is ever a full brass band part version. In our section I think there were a few Dark Side Of the Moon, Olympus and Laudate Dominum, but I could be wrong.

I did find the bass sound disappeared into the roof of the stage, so might have to play louder next time

 

[CanIwriteTheFingeringIn?]

Thanks Red Elvis - we were pretty chuffed with the result!

We played Rosehill as our march and Mountain Views for the test piece

Being a Sally Army boy Rosehill is an excellent march, which when played well sounds very stylish. You obviously played it well so well done (because we thought we'd done a cracking job with Knight Templar but it still wasn't enough!)

I'm also relatively new to contest banding so this may be an age old discussion that doesn't need dragging up...... but, as a newby I find it a bit unfair that out of 5 bands in our section, 3 of them 'choose' to play their recent area pieces.
I think there should be rules against that. I know it's an 'own choice' contest and Scaba is a seperate organisation to those who run the areas, but even so I think it is unfair.

We worked hard on a tough piece for 6 weeks and lost out to a band who have been playing their piece for at least 4/5 months or possibly much longer (I recall the area pieces were announced in September when we were at Cheltenham, so first looks at them could have taken place as long as 9 months ago!)

Just saying........

 

[englishgill]

Sadly we parted company with our conductor unexpectedly a week after the areas so really our only option was to play a test piece that both the band and the conductor who agreed to help us out also knew well. In previous years we have deliberately tried NOT to play the areas piece and our plan this time was also to play something else but then we were overtaken by events and decided to at least try to turn up and play rather than withdraw and lose our contest deposit...

 

[MoominDave]

The complaint is also a bit naive...

1) Choosing the right piece for an own choice contest is an important piece of the tactics.
2) Rehearsing a piece for too long will make the band go 'off the boil' with it as the players get bored of it.
3) I sincerely doubt whether any band that played 'Mountain Views' at the areas was rehearsing it seriously as long ago as New Year. It just isn't that hard.
4) Horsham are used to competing at a higher level than Thundersley. Yes, Thundersley have won the last two areas in the section below, so might have hoped to take that particular scalp, especially as Horsham have had variable results on the contest stage of late, from excellent at Wessex to not so good at Dover. But it's completely plausible that they would simply deliver a better performance on a particular day.
5) 'Blazon' is not, judging by the other contests it's been used for, a tough piece, I'm afraid. See http://brassbandresults.co.uk/pieces/blazon/ - this is the highest level it's ever been used at.

Sometimes you come away from a contest feeling that you've been robbed. Sometimes after a couple of weeks of reflection you still cannot get away from the conclusion that you were robbed. I doubt that this will be one of those times.

 

[CanIwriteTheFingeringIn?]

Sadly we parted company with our conductor unexpectedly a week after the areas so really our only option was to play a test piece that both the band and the conductor who agreed to help us out also knew well. In previous years we have deliberately tried NOT to play the areas piece and our plan this time was also to play something else but then we were overtaken by events and decided to at least try to turn up and play rather than withdraw and lose our contest deposit...

Fair enough. Situations dictate decisions sometimes.

But 5/6 weeks is still plenty of time to learn a new piece....... as we proved by doing just that and beating the other 2 bands who insisted on crashing their way through Cross Patonce again!

I'm pretty sure Mr Morrison was talking about those 2 when he mentioned bands needing to avoid selecting music that they can't play!

 

[Accidental]

as a newby I find it a bit unfair that out of 5 bands in our section, 3 of them 'choose' to play their recent area pieces.
I think there should be rules against that. I know it's an 'own choice' contest and Scaba is a seperate organisation to those who run the areas, but even so I think it is unfair.

Why is it unfair? Nobody broke any rules, and the key word here is "choice" - its down to the bands and their MDs to choose a piece that suits them and their agenda best. The decision to enter a contest at all can affected by countless different things: band development, performance practice, ambition, ranking points, to run out pieces before other bigger contests, to test players and MDs, to support a local association, and sometimes just because they think they've got a good chance of bringing some silverware home!

Choice of piece is affected by all of those things too, plus issues around player and conductor availability. If your band was able to work up a new piece from scratch and perform it well (which I think you did), then great. Knowing your conductor, I honestly think you can, and should, trust his judgement.
If other bands managed to make it to the contest at all despite issues with players/conductors and preparation time and they made it easier on themselves by recycling the area piece, then I think that's great too.
Both your band and Horsham played very well on Sunday, but imho you "lost out" to a band that was better on the day, simple as that. 2nd is a great result though, and one you should be happy with :clap:

Just as a hypothetical, if you were to propose that previous area test pieces were banned, how far back would you extend the ruling? Would it apply to previous years, or other set-piece contests (National Finals, Spring Festival, Open etc etc)? Would it extend to bands not being able to re-use the same own choice piece at contests within a given timeframe? A couple of bands in this area 10-20 years ago were notorious for recycling the same pieces over and over again and nearly always getting decent results... was that 'unfair' too, or was it a sensible strategy?

The Spring contest has been on its knees for a few years now and this Sunday's entry of 20 was the biggest for a long time. I think we need to support the local bands and encourage them to come to the contests, not make it even harder for them by introducing more rules!