26th February 2012
Melrose Pipe Band Championships Cancelled 2012
Melrose Pipe Band
Championships Committee
After being involved over the past 17 years with the organisation of the very successful Melrose Pipe band Championships, myself and fellow members of our small committee, decided to stand down at the end of 2011.
We put out a press release in December and were fortunate enough to be approached by the Rotary Clubs of both Galashiels and Melrose who agreed, and were looking forward to, taking up the challenge of organising the event with the backing of ourselves for 2012.
However, in the meantime, the Lothian and Borders Branch of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (RSPBA) decided to change the date of The Edinburgh Pipe Band Competition held in July 2011 to the 19th August 2012....the day after Melrose.
The RSPBA calendar now reads,
The ‘Worlds’ 11th August....... Melrose 18th August, Edinburgh 19th August, Cowal Games 26th August.
We feel is a big ask for bands and spectators alike to compete and spectate 4 times in a matter of 2 weeks and felt something would have to give. In our opinion, Melrose would probably be the competition to lose out and with that in mind, could not give a guarantee to the Rotary Clubs that there would be a large turnout of bands or spectators. For that reason, we have all agreed that it will be too risky to go forward with the Championships.
We were never included in any discussions with the RSPBA and we feel very disappointed with the way they have handled the situation. It seems someone, somewhere, must be pulling the strings of the Lothian and Borders Branch of the RSPBA.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you, on behalf of our committee, for your support over the past 17 years.
It was a great event which brought a lot of publicity to the area. It also gave a great deal of pleasure to competitors, spectators, organisers, sponsors and to the many visitors to the Borders.
Kind regards
Ian Graham
To read more, please click on link below