On Sunday 23rd February we took to the famous stage of the Opera House in Blackpool Winter Gardens once again to compete in the 2025 North West Areas Regional Brass Band Championships. With a large Second Section of 18 bands again this year (we achieved 4th place last February) we again had a very early morning start, departing from the bandroom at 7.15am. On arrival at the Winter Gardens we drew to play No.8 of 18 and after an even better performance than we gave last year, then had to endure a long wait until the results ceremony at 2.30pm.

This year, the set test piece across the whole of the UK for the Second Section 2025 regional contests was entitled ‘Friendly Takeover’ composed by Oliver Waespi and every band had to perform this prescribed piece of music which lasts just under ten minutes. Adjudicators Stan Lippeatt and Martin Heartfield were effusive in their compliments about our Eagley performance and praised the excellent opening, dynamics, balance and huge amounts of detail brought out. The adjudicators stated that our “very polished” performance was “particularly well shaped” by our conductor Chris Wormald, who managed to bring out “great style” and “lovely balance, sound, expression and consistency from movement to movement” throughout. Flugel player Janet Walsh and Solo Euphonium player Laura Hemmings were singled out for being “stylish” and for their excellent solo contributions, and on many occasions our Drum Kit player Leo Turner-Patel and his fellow percussionists were also rightly highlighted for significant praise, ranging from “excellent Kit” to “great kit!” and “great percussion”. Our Basses were also praised for their excellent playing and contribution and in conclusion, the adjudicators wrote “Bravo Musical Director, great percussion and soloists.”  

At the results ceremony it was announced that the bands responsible for the top 3 performances would be invited to the 2025 National Brass Band Championship Finals to be held in Cheltenham this coming September and, as always, the results were announced by Peter Bates from 6th place upwards, in reverse order up to the winners. Having played our absolute best and come off stage feeling we could not have played any better, when Eagley was not announced in 6th, 5th, 4th or 3rd place, many of us started to dream that maybe we had won a North West Areas contest again under our MD Chris just as we did in his very first Areas contest in Blackpool with Eagley back in 1990, but when 2nd place was announced, together with the prizes of a huge shield, glass trophy, money and an invitation to the 2025 National Finals, Peter Bates declared; “Runners Up, Band No.8, Eagley Band!” and everyone erupted with incredible excitement in the hall. There were wild and noisy scenes for quite a few minutes and our Chair Deb Lyons went up to the stage to huge applause to receive all of the prizes on behalf of the band.

A great few weeks of preparation and a great performance on the day resulted in Eagley Band being named 2025 Second Section Runners Up and, as a result of being placed 4th last year and 2nd this year, once again promoted to the 1st Section from January 2026.