Over the weekend of February 25th and 26th we at Eagley Band held our final contest preparation rehearsal on the Saturday evening and then took part in the First Section contest of the North West Area Brass Band Championships for the second consecutive year, staged as every February at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. It was another great weekend for the band and everyone involved and there was also a very special presentation made in front of the full Opera House audience to our Chair and Solo Horn player Deb Lyons for being a member of Eagley Band for 40 years.

On the Saturday evening, the full band and our MD Chris Wormald relocated to a different sized and shaped room in our huge rehearsal premises in Bolton to experience a totally different acoustic and surrounding and everything sounded superb. Tuning, dynamics and precision of ensemble are always the Eagley Band/Wormald hallmarks, and with balance having never been better this past season, the band has been playing at its peak for quite some time.

Our section this year took place on the exact same stage and same day as the Championship Section contest, once again won by Fodens Band for the seventh year in a row. Our performance was really high quality throughout, with stand out contributions by our superb Percussion and Bass sections and all featured section principals led brilliantly as ever by our Principal Cornet Lynsey Hayes, but most notably the finest contest performance ever given by our Solo Horn player Deb Lyons in her many years in Eagley and whose solos on stage in Blackpool were stunning and without doubt amongst the very best horn solos of the day. We were placed 14th out of 16 bands in our section, this 2023 result places Eagley as the 26th best band out of the 80 competing bands in the whole of the North West – a remarkable achievement given that only six years ago the band had a North West ranking down in the mid 60s. The whole Eagley performance drew widespread compliments for every aspect from tuning and dynamics to quality of band sound, balance and the necessary conveyed drama and story telling.

The highlight of the contest results ceremony was the presentation made by long time contest controller Peter Bates to our Chair and Solo Horn player Deb Lyons. Although all of the band knew she was going to receive a framed certificate on stage in front of a packed Opera House audience, Deb herself had no idea at all, so in addition to having played superbly in the test piece earlier, within a couple of hours she was honoured by the NWABBA for her membership of the same brass band for 40 years and received a standing ovation from the Eagley contingent as well as well deserved and rapturous applause by everyone present. Many congratulations to Deb!