Victoria has a new World Champion band

​Dear Victorian Pipe Band Community

Over 200 bands competed across 9 grades at the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. Amazing!

This year, 4 Victorian bands ventured over to Glasgow to share their music - Old Scotch Pipes and Drums (Grade 3B), Ambulance Victoria Pipes and Drums (Grade 4B), Scotch College Pipes and Drums No.1 (Novice Juvenile A), and Scotch College Pipes and Drums No.2 (Novice Juvenile B).

Well done to all bands. To have so many bands play in the Worlds is simply fabulous and a reflection of the vibrant pipe band community in Victoria.
 
But, hot off the press overnight (Pipes Drums) .......

Scotch College Pipes and Drums No.2 band are crowned Novice Juvenile B World Champions. 

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO SCOTCH COLLEGE PIPES AND DRUMS NO.2 BAND! A simply brilliant result.

Earlier this week all the results for Novice B were withdrawn from the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (RSPBA) website. As many will now be aware, the results announced for this grade on the day were subsequently deemed erroneous as they had been entered incorrectly.
After an urgent review of all results, the RSPBA has just announced corrected results for Novice B and Scotch College Pipes and Drums No.2 were declared World Champions. And true champions they are. In their qualifying heat the band scored 1sts from all four judges (1,1,1,1). In the final, they scored three 1sts and a 2nd (1,1,2,1).

Of course, there will be tremendous excitement at Scotch College this morning! I'm sure there will now be huge celebrations for the boys, staff, tutors and band families. Pipe Bands Victoria certainly looks forward to acknowledging the band's World Championship success at a contest during the upcoming season. 
Congratulations also to Scotch College Pipes and Drums No.1 band coming 3rd in Novice A, just pipped for 2nd place by 1 point by West Lothian Schools. 
The No.1 band's Drum Corps placed 1st at the European Championships (held in Perth) the week prior, coming 2nd at the World's. A fabulous result too.

This is the 2nd year in a row that a World Championship title has come back to Victoria, with Haileybury (Grade 3B) and Scots School Albury (Grade 4B) winning their grades last year. 
Again, well done to Scotch College Pipes and Drums - both No.2 and No.1 bands. We so look forward to hearing you play across the 2024-25 Victorian Contest Season. 

My congratulations also to:

• Old Scotch Pipes and Drums placed 14th (out of 22) in Grade 3B, with a tied score for 12th and 13th preferenced back to Ensemble.  Well done Old Scotch!!

• Ambulance Victoria Pipes and Drums (Grade 4B) played in the qualifying heats on Saturday morning, but didn't quite make the finals. You did us proud. It's about being there.
  You know we'd love to see you in the contest circle locally again!! (Hint: look at the new Grade 4B rule for "shared" players).

I extend my final congratulations to Australian bands:
Grade 2 Pipe Band Club - 3rd  
Grade 3B Brisbane Boys Old Collegians Pipe Band - 8th
Grade 4B New South Wales Highlanders played in the qualifying heats
Novice A Brisbane Boys College Pipe Band - 4th


Kind regards

Karen 

Karen J Wallace  (she/her)
Chair, Pipe Bands Victoria