Huddersfield and Ripponden Band outside Huddersfield Town Hall

Yorkshire Regional Brass Band Championships 2020

Over the weekend of the 7 and 8 of March 2020, more than fifty bands competed in the Yorkshire Regional Brass Band Championships being held at Huddersfield Town Hall.  Despite the closure of the multi-storey car park adjacent to the Town Hall and the pandemic Coronavirus threatening to postpone or even halt the entire competition, the bands played on undaunted.

Drawn to play seventh, Huddersfield & Ripponden took to the stage early on Sunday morning presenting its performance of Andrew Baker’s 3rd section test piece Endurance, a piece written in five variations inspired by the  Trans Antarctic Expedition of 1914 undertaken by explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Hoping for a good result and looking to re-create the hard work done in the bandroom over the past eight weeks, the band performed to its optimum level featuring no less than 15 of its members as soloists.

The adjudicators for the day, David Hirst and Steve Pritchard-Jones placed Huddersfield & Ripponden 8th out of the  eleven competing. With the final top six places just out of reach, the band would have preferred to walk away with a better outcome but its members and their MD, Adam Bell accepted the result with grace and fortitude.

Take a look at the gallery showing a few photographs taken on the day.