Glasgow Lands Wrapup

Yesterday was the Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival in western Massachusetts, my fourth solo competition of the season. The forecast was for quite a lot of rain, but it turned out to be a very nice day. The humidity in the morning was oppressive, but in the afternoon in seemed to break and turned out to be nearly perfect. Alas I didn’t have my videographer, so there is not a visual or audio record of the day’s events, but I’ll recount now as best I can.

This was another games with only two solo events, piobaireachd and MSR. It was the MSR I played first, and judge Peter Kent picked Mrs. John MacColl of my two marches. It was the first time I’ve played that tune in competition this year, and that considered it came out fairly well. I also switched my strathspey to Shepherd’s Crook, replacing Arniston Castle, and the strathspey I felt went very nicely. The reel started well, but I had a memory bubble in the first part (the same place as my first mistake in the reel in this video). The judge commented after I finished that I “skidded, but didn’t wreck,” which was a good way to put it. I spoke to him after the competitions were over and said that mistake had knocked me out of the top prizes for the day. As it was I came out 5th place of 17 people, and after that slip I was quite pleased with the result.

I then went to play my piobaireachd, and I was extremely satisfied with it. I did feel that I couldn’t really get my pipes in tune (I felt that about the MSR as well), but after messing with it for a while I decided that it wasn’t going to get much better and just went with it. Judge Nancy seemed to think it was ok though, so I’m thinking that I might have been trying to get it perfect when I had already gotten it to the point where it was very good. I don’t have much else to say besides first place, so I’m happy. They had split the grade 2 piobaireachd into two parts, so I was only played against six or seven others in this event.

It was after my solos that I really started enjoying myself though; I wandered off to get some lunch (fish and chips were good, but not as good as the ones I had had in Scotland; go figure), and spent some time waiting for results while chatting with some judges and fellow competitors. I think my favorite part of going to the games is seeing the other people there, and seeing the same people at many events. I then grabbed my notepad and folding chair and settled in to judge the pipe band contest from the sideline.

The grade 4 medley contest was enjoyable, and it’s been a while since I was able to watch a band contest at this level all the way through. Stuart Highlanders were on first, and they started well with a very strong performance for grade 4. They were only eclipsed by the Schenectady Pipe Band, who played a medley worthy of grade 3, and were the clear winners. For the record, I had picked all five bands in the order in which they finished, so that made me feel like I know what I’m talking about.

I wasn’t so successful with the grade 3 MSR, though I did pick the winner correctly. The Stuart Highlanders were the last band to play, and they were the clear winners in my opinion (and the real judges’ opinions as well, apparently). Of the seven bands that played, they were the only one in the prize list I had picked correctly.

The grade 1 contest was very enjoyable, and featured the east coast’s two grade 1 band, City of Washington and Oran Mor, as well as a challenge up from the grade 2 Manchester Pipe Band. There was an MSR and medley contest, and again it turned out I had picked the order correctly in both events. I wasn’t taking notes for this one, but I went with my overall impression, and I felt the results were pretty clear.

I watched the closing massed bands from the sideline and was somewhat surprised to hear my name announced as half of a tie for piper of the day. I figured the 5th place would knock me out of contention, but I guess not. The award is a story for another day, but I’m not upset or anything. Seriously.

The only thing that could have made the day better was if I had been able to stay for the Enter The Haggis contest in the evening, but with a long drive home I figured I had better get on the road. It was easy to spot the people who had come in just for the Haggis concert, as they are a unique crew. That’s a story for another day again.