Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia Pipe Band success at World Championships

Aug 19 2010 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

BOGHALL and Bathgate Caledonia Pipe Band described it as a bittersweet experience after a rulebook blunder demoted them to fourth in last week’s World Championships.

The West Lothian band were ecstatic when they were told they had finished in third place in the prestigious event in front of 53,000 spectators in Glasgow and a worldwide television audience.

The Grade One band had tied on points with last year’s winners, Simon Fraser University from Vancouver, but organisers, The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association, announced that Boghall and Bathgate would take home the bronze.

But, just as their celebrations began, they were called by officials from the RSPBA who said they had bungled and the Canadian band should have finished in third.

Although the bands had tied, marks for the ensemble were read incorrectly.

The RSPBA said: “Simon Fraser University from Canada take third spot on an Ensemble Preference from fourth place Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia. Unfortunately this was announced the wrong way around and we apologise to both bands for this error.”

Band secretary William McCafferty said they were still delighted with their best-ever finish at the world championships.

He said: “We went into the event with great hope and anticipation. We thought that had all paid-off when third place was awarded to us.

“It meant we had managed to separate the top three bands in the world.

“Later on in the evening we got a call from the organisers saying they had made a mistake. Of the four bands in the top four ourselves and Simon Fraser University had 27 points each.

“There are no ties in the competition and it turns out in the rulebook that, if it is a draw, it goes to a composite ensemble score of the two performances. It turns out that SFU had a better composite score and should have been awarded third place.

“We are still delighted with fourth place as it is the best the band has ever done in the world championships but third place would have been even nicer.”

William added: “We are still effectively the best band in Scotland which is something they cannot take away from us we were only beaten by the overseas bands.”

There was good news for Boghall and Bathgate’s juvenile band which picked up second place and the drumming corps were crowned world champs, adding to the British championship they won earlier in the year.

“It was a fantastic spectacle and one which all the bands enjoyed,” added William.

“There were 239 bands from around the world and over 50,000 spectators.

“It was a fantastic achievement from the drumming corps and the juvenile band considering they have been trained up from novices with us.

“I’d like to thank grade one Pipe Major Ross Walker, leading drummer and juvenile band drumming tutor Gordon Brown, juvenile band Pipe Major Ian Bowden, novice juvenile band pipe major Alvis Kerr and drumming tutor Tom Brown for all their hard work.”

Jim Walker, executive councillor for Culture and Leisure, said: “I’d like to congratulate the band members. I’m sure everyone in West Lothian is very proud of them.

“The competition was incredibly fierce with the top 239 bands from across the globe competing. The standard is very high so finishing fourth is an amazing achievement.”