Cheltenham – Saturday 13th September

Having qualified for the 2025 National Finals by finishing Runners-Up at the North West Area contest in Blackpool in February, much of our Summer and early September rehearsals were taken up preparing for our appearance at the finals, held in Cheltenham over the weekend of September 13th and 14th.

The set test piece for all 19 qualifying bands in our section was a piece called ‘Adam Zero’ by Sir Arthur Bliss, a five movement suite arranged, published and chosen for the contest by Bob Childs, who was also the Head adjudicator on the day.

We travelled down to Cheltenham on the Friday afternoon and evening of September 12th and checked into the same hotel where we stayed for our appearance at the 2021 National Finals, so everything was very familiar. We arrived in plenty of time to head across the road to the restaurants and hospitality, where we all enjoyed excellent food, drink and shared stories in a loud and vibrant atmosphere, knowing our weeks of rehearsal were now done and all that remained was to perform the piece to our very best the following morning.  

With the whole band making it to breakfast by 7am on the Saturday morning, our Chair Deb and Sarah headed off at 7.15am to the draw, with the rest of the band following in the band coach at 7.45am. Deb did brilliantly in drawing out number 8, which meant we had time to rehearse and warm up for an hour at the venue between 9am and 10am; an invaluable session which an earlier draw would have prevented happening.

When we took to the stage, even with some nerves understandably tingling around the band, we played superbly and everyone contributed exactly as our conductor Chris had prepared us. Led brilliantly as ever by our Principal Lynsey, all of our soloists played superbly and we all couldn’t have played much better.

Head adjudicator Bob Childs was clearly impressed with our performance, his written comments including “Excellent clarity to start,” “Good expression soloists,” “Excellent clarity once again,” “Fine percussion,” “Great,” “Well played last 3 bars,” “Lyrical Cornet solo well played,” “Nice change of mood,” “Good xylophone,” “Good climax at letter C,” “Alla Marcia well managed,” “Exciting Coda, fine ending, it certainly was Vivo” and fellow adjudicators Brett Baker and Stephanie Binns commenting “Good tempo, good pulse, I like the balance” and “Great opening to Spring with good rhythmic accuracy and balance,” “Very neat and detailed,” “Great percussion, solo lines are expressive,” “Great breadth of sound” and many more compliments.

Highly respected composer Philip Wilby approached our conductor Chris outside the hall after our performance to congratulate him on what he felt was the standout performance of the first eight bands and to congratulate Lynsey on her excellent Cornet solo in the third movement. Cory MD Philip Harper also sought out Chris some minutes later to congratulate him on our band’s performance.

When the official results being announced, the placings were read out from 6th upwards and we were read out as finishing in 5th of the 19 bands, to a huge cheer from band members and our wonderful Eagley supporters, family and friends who had made the journey down to Cheltenham.

Having played so well and been widely congratulated on our performance and a very proud and happy band then headed into Cheltenham for some celebratory food and hospitality before making the journey back up to Bolton, knowing that everyone had played their absolute best.