Littlehampton Armed Forces Day - Bagpipe band

We were invited to be part of Armed forces day parade at Littlehampton.

The  Grenadier guards band provided the main music for the march, and we just walked along.  Not bad as we were down to just 4 pipers at this point.

The parade ground was on the sea front .. give the hot temperature and the relentless sun shine the sea breeze was very welcome.

some of the groups presenting themselves, but we did not have much chance to see them in action

Some tuning and also meeting up with Gordon, who had sensibly, for him, kept out of the march, and an old member ...  we were ready for our parade ground performance (although a little late, or was the call early)  we marched on and up and down a bit then into a circle.
We played for 20 mins then left.

Then we went off to the pub for some liquid refreshment.

I could not hang around as I had to head home and pack for the summer break. 

Horley Carnival - Pipeband

Horley carnival time again ...  followed the usual format ...  we started in the covered/ underground car park.. meet and tune up completed we then sauntered off to gather again in the main pedestrian precinct area.

Here we did a circle set with the highlights being the competition marches and MSR sets ... the first time we had performed them in public outside competition.

Then we waited to join in the parade as it passed us by ...  we were around 6th/ 7th position in the parade. Marching down to the park, playing the 3/4 sets ...  a bit of a blow.

In the park we headed over to the Lions tent for tea, only to find out that we did not have a turn in the arena ...  a bit of a bonus, and most then headed home. I had to wait for Sue who had gone off to find a slot around the arena.

Colchester competition - Pipeband

Final competition of our season ...  and a second visit for me to Colchester.
Sue and I set off with Bertie..  so as we did not have to leave him at home alone for a long time.
2 hours up the road we made it to the park...

A short period of warm up was interrupted by a slight people problem with one of our colleagues walking off ... never understood the root cause, but probably nothing to do with the band. So one down we went out ...  first up the G4 MSR ...  not our best performance maybe a mixture of nerves and also the issue with the missing piper.

Next up, after a break and re-tune was the G4 Marches...  a much better performance but with one down we were not expecting more than some sheets.

The final turn was the G3 Medley ...  a second go at the MSR ...  a better rendition, but we still put in enough mistakes.

Bertie did not like the multiple bands playing .. too much noise, and he wanted to get out of the arena, so whilst we were resting Sue took the time to visit the castle and park.

The mass bands was the final turn, where we slotted in .. the noise was as we expected and the speeches overly long ...  however the biggest surprise was getting a 5th in the Marches ...