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and finally a few thoughts about the brass band movement in general . . .
This page will be regularly updated and my views will be made known on certain topics of the day. Let me know your thoughts!
National
Championships Re-organisation?
In my opinion the National Championships Finals at the Royal Albert Hall each October should feature all of the best bands Britain has to offer. Because of the system of qualification from the eight area contests it means that every year at least 2 bands capable of winning the title cannot compete because they have failed to qualify due to the geographical situation of the bands which only allows so many bands through from each area.
Every other brass band nation that runs a National Contest have all of their best bands competing. I would now like to set out an idea as to how we can do the same.
12 bands should form an Elite section that will not compete at the Area Contests and will be invited to the Finals at RAH. The National Final should then be increased to a two part contest, a set-piece in the morning, and then an own choice in the afternoon with separate draws and perhaps a youth contest in between. The placings will be decided by an aggregate of the scores of both sections similar to the European and Norwegian Contests. Two different adjudication panels will be used.
All other bands will compete through the Area Contest system in 4 sections, ie 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th with 2 bands from each area qualifying for the National Finals of each section currently held in Harrogate.
After the Finals the two bands placed 1st & 2nd in the 1st Section National Final will change places with the 2 bands placed 11th & 12th in the Elite section earning an invitation to the National Final at RAH the following year. The two bands relegated will be required to compete at Area level in the 1st Section the following year.
Additionally all of the English bands in the Elite Section will receive an automatic invitation to the All-England Masters Championship at Cambridge along with the 6 English Area Contest winners in the 1st Section. The organisers would be able to make the number up to 21 with wild card invitations and the winning band at Cambridge would receive the English invitation to the European Contest for the following year.
The initial 12 bands can be decided by the BBW or 4Barsrest ranking system.
The benefits of this system are as follows:
1) All the best bands compete every year at RAH in the National Final.
2) Every band in the country has the opportunity to qualify for all the major competitions.
3) The National Final in RAH is based on more than one performance.
4) The Area Contests, although lacking the name bands, will become much more competitive.
Alan Morrison © 2004
The Alan Morrison Website
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