Dunbar Highland Games 2011

So, the piping season starts once again, this time slightly later than usual.

The first competition was, as always, at Dunbar. As with last year, they've moved the contest away from the seafront to another park. This cuts down on the wind considerably, which is a vast improvement.

For the most part, it was a lovely day - nice and sunny, with not too much wind. There was one extremely heavy shower, but it soon passed.

The band were playing twice - once in the Grade 4 contest (essentially, a Grade 4B contest), and again for a "Grade 4 MSR", which is basically a Grade 4A contest. This is a fairly new development at the minor contests - most of them still only have the one "Grade 4" contest.

We played really well at Grade 4 level, and left the field well pleased. However, there was a feeling that this was mostly meaningless, since it's not really the contest we're interested in. In the MSR, we unfortunately didn't play as well. The breaks from the march to the strathspey, and from the strathspey to the reel didn't go well. Also, the reel was too fast, causing it to fall apart a bit in the last part.

However, the results didn't seem to bear this out. In the Grade 4, we came third. In the MSR, we came fourth. (Unfortunately, the MSR only had a single prize for the winner.) So, a good result, albeit probably better than was really deserved.

And that takes us to the Scottish Championships at Dumbarton...