Summer, Scotland, and more Solo contests

A very busy season playing with two pipe bands (at least 3 competition circles per contest)  and keeping up with solo competitions came to a close recently with a trip to the Caledonian Club of San Francisco 146th annual Highland Games in Pleasanton, California.  This is a summary of what has happened since the Pacific Northwest Highland Games in Enumclaw. 

After a successful Friday night Pub Piping performance, Alexander had a good weekend, placing 1st in Jig, 2nd in Piobaireachd, 4th in MSR, and 4th in Hornpipe & Jig.  This was a fun competition season in Grade 1 piping, and the results were pretty exciting, with DTSPB band mate Joe Stewart winning the Grand Aggregate for the season, and with Alexander tying with the exact same number of points overall for the season with DTSPB band mate Scott Wood. 

NWWSUPB won their 2nd MSR contest and finished as runner up for the Grand Aggregate; just shy of the grand aggregate championship, a great boost before their upcoming trip to Scotland, and DTSPB placed 1st in ensemble for the 2nd time this season, another great confidence boost for the band.

After Enumclaw, Alexander traveled to Scotland to lead the Northwest/White Spot United Pipe Band at the North Berwick and the Bridge of Allan Highland Games before the World Pipe Band Championships. Northwest/White Spot tied for 2nd with Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia Juvenile, placing 3rd overall on the day. 

NWWSUPB at North Berwick

The following day, the band competed at the Bridge of Allan Highland Games and placed 1st in piping and 2nd overall in Grade 3, placing ahead of the uber-talented George Watsons college, who had won every major championship in Juvenile in 2011. There were 15 bands in the Grade 3 contest, so the team felt really great about the day.

NWWSUPB winning 1st in piping, 2nd overall at Bridge of Allan

Dowco Triumph Street members began arriving that day, and practices started up Monday morning, so a week of twice a day practices with DTSPB and practices as often as possible with NW/WSUPB began, and the week before the worlds was mostly filled with music and practice, prepping for the World Championships.

On the day, NW/WSUPB took the field and played what many in the band felt was their best MSR performance of the season.  All of the band members were smiling and happy with their music when leaving the competition field. Alexander handed off his bagpipes and ran to the Grade 1 final tuning area, where he was to meet up with Dowco Triumph Street to play in the qualifier. DTSPB had encountered some delays getting to the final tuning area, so weren't there...and Alexander began running outside the grounds to find the band, but on his way out, the band arrived at final tuning. Thankfully, a friend of the band was keeping his DTSPB pipes warmed up, and when he got back, the band had entered the final tuning area, Alexander walked in, grabbed his pipes, took a couple quick breaths and began tuning up with the band. The MSR qualifier went very well, and the band anxiously awaited the results; learning they had qualified for the final events and moving on to prepare for the next MSR event.  Later the band learned they had won the qualifier round.  At the end of the day, NW/WSUPB had placed 5th in Juvenile and Dowco Triumph Street had placed 6th in the Medley and 9th overall, cracking into the top 10 best pipe bands in the world.

Alexander attended the Pleasanton Highland Games for the first time in his piping history, placing 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th in his competitions. Alexander is now preparing for the Nicol-Brown Amateur Invitational in Albany, NY on October 8th, as well as the George Sherriff Memorial Invitational in Hamilton, Ontario on November 19th, where he will compete again with three of his band mates; Joseph Stewart, Scott Wood, and Marshall German.