2025 New Zealand Champions: Manawatu Scottish

Invercargill, New Zealand—March 6-7, 2025—After two days of competitions, it was Manawatu Scottish who were awarded the 2025 New Zealand Championship against a field of five other Grade 1 bands. St. Andrews College of Christchurch won the Grade 2 championship.

Manawatu’s win ended the five-year run of New Zealand Championships for Canterbury Caledonian Society. It was the final competition of Canterbury Pipe-Major Jamie Hawke, who handed over the leadership to Pipe-Sergeant Piers Dover.

The Grade 1 competitions welcomed the return of the New Zealand Police Pipe Band, which had been on hiatus while rebuilding.

Despite challenging conditions, the events went on without a hitch before a large crowd gathered in the South Island town.

In New Zealand, bands compete in a “street march” event, during which townspeople line the roads to watch the bands go by. Performances are judged by music and presentation, but Street March results are not counted towards the overall championship awards.

Conditions on Friday were overcast and chilly, but Saturday weather was so horrendously wet in the morning it would have put to shame the worst that Glasgow Green could ever muster. Conditions improved by the time the afternoon Grade 2 and Grade 1 events started, with rain only intermittent.

All the Friday and Saturday events were live-streamed. Despite the conditions, Invergargillians lined the roads to see and hear the bands in the Street March. The Grade 1 and Grade 2 bands were exempted in advance from the Street March due to the conditions, and the decision was made on the day to cancel the Grade 3 event.

Grade 1 (six competed)
Overall
1st Manawatu Scottish
2nd Canterbury Caledonian Society
3rd Hawthorn
4th Auckland & District
5th ILT Invercargill Highland
6th New Zealand Police
Drumming: Manawatu Scottish

Medley
1st Canterbury Caledonian Society (2,2,1,1)
2nd Manawatu Scottish (1,1,2,4)
3rd Hawthorn (3,3,4,2)
4th Auckland & District (4,5,3,3)
5th ILT City of Invercargill Highland (5,4,5,5)
6th New Zealand Police (6,6,6,6)
Judges: Stuart Easton, Terry Lee (piping); Chris Stevens (ensemble); Scott Mitchell (drumming)

MSR
1st Manawatu Scottish (1,1,1,1)
2nd Canterbury Caledonian Society (2,2,3,5)
3rd ILT City of Invercargill Highland (5,5,2,2)
4th Auckland & District (3,3,4,4)
5th Hawthorn (4,4,5,3)
6th New Zealand Police (6,6,6,6)
Judges: Liam Kernaghan, Brian Switalla (piping; Paul Turner (ensemble); Ross Levy (drumming)

Grade 2 (five competed)
Overall
1st St. Andrew’s College (Christchurch)
2nd Pipe Band Club Sydney
3rd St. Andrews (Sydney)
4th Celtic (Nelson)
5th City of Tauranga
Drumming: Pipe Band Club Sydney

Medley
1st St. Andrew’s College (Christchurch) (2,1,2,2)
2nd St. Andrew’s (Brisbane) (1,2,3,3)
3rd Pipe Band Club Sydney (4,4,1,1)
4th Celtic (Nelson) (3,3,4,4)
5th City of Tauranga (5,5,5,5)
Judges: Liam Kernaghan, Brian Switalla (piping; Paul Turner (ensemble); Ross Levy (drumming)

MSR
1st St. Andrew’s College (Christchurch) (1,1,1,2)
2nd Pipe Band Club Sydney (3,4,3,1)
3rd Celtic (Nelson) (4,3,2,3)
4th St. Andrew’s (Brisbane) (2,2,4,4)
5th City of Tauranga (5,5,5,5)
Judges: Stuart Easton, Terry Lee (piping); Chris Stevens (ensemble); Scott Mitchell (drumming)

Grade 3 (nine competed)
Overall
1st Hamilton Caledonian
2nd Canterbury Caledonian Society (Gr3)
3rd Auckland & District (Gr3)
4th ILT City of Invercargill Highland (Gr3)
5th Manawatu Scottish (Gr3)
6th Wellington Red Hackle
7th Auckland Police (Gr3)
8th Hawke’s Bay Caledonian
9th Scottish Society of New Zealand
Drumming: Canterbury Caledonian Society (Gr3)

Medley
1st Canterbury Caledonian Society (Gr3) (2,2,1,1)
2nd Hamilton Caledonian (1,1,2,2)
3rd Auckland & District (4,3,4,4)
4th ILT City of Invercargill Highland (Gr3) (5,5,3,5)
5th Manawatu Scottish (6,6,5,6)
6th Hawke’s Bay Caledonian (3,4,7,9)
7th Auckland Police (Gr3) (8,8,6,7)
8th Wellington Red Hackle (9,9,8,3)
9th Scottish Society of New Zealand (7,7,9,8)
Judges: Liam Kernaghan, Brian Switalla (piping; Paul Turner (ensemble); Ross Levy (drumming)

MSR
1st Hamilton Caledonian (1,1,1,6)
2nd Canterbury Caledonian Society (Gr3) (2,5,2,1)
3rd Manawatu Scottish (Gr3) (5,3,4,3)
4th Wellington Red Hackle (7,6,3,2)
5th ILT City of Invercargill Highland (Gr3) (4,2,7,5)
6th Auckland & District (3,7,6,4)
7th Auckland Police (6,4,5,9)
8th Hawke’s Bay Caledonian (8,8,8,7)
9th Scottish Society of New Zealand (9,9,9,8)
Judges: Stuart Easton, Terry Lee (piping); Chris Stevens (ensemble); Scott Mitchell (drumming)

Grade 4A (nine competed)
Overall
1st Metro Scottish
2nd Hokonui Celtic
3rd City of Rotorua Highland
4th St. Andrew’s College (Christchurch)
5th Celtic (Nelson)
6th Canterbury Caledonian Society (Gr4A)
7th Papakura
8th Wellington Red Hackle (Gr4)
9th Knox Grammar School
Drumming: Metro Scottish

Medley
1st Metro Scottish (1,1,2,1)
2nd Hokonui Celtic (2,2,4,3)
3rd St. Andrew’s College (Christchurch) (5,4,3,2)
4th City of Rotorua Highland (4,6,1,5)
5th Celtic (Nelson) (3,3,6,8)
6th Canterbury Caledonian Society (Gr4A) (8,7,5,4)
7th Papakura (6,5,7,6)
8th Knox Grammar School (7,8,8,9)
9th Wellington Red Hackle (Gr4) (9,9,9,7)
Judges: Liam Kernaghan, Brian Switalla (piping; Paul Turner (ensemble); Ross Levy (drumming)

MSR
1st Metro Scottish  (1,1,1,1)
2nd Hokonui Celtic (2,3,2,2)
3rd City of Rotorua Highland (3,4,3,3)
4th Canterbury Caledonian Society (Gr4A) (5,5,4,5)
5th Celtic (Nelson) (4,2,8,8)
6th Papakura (7,7,5,4)
7th St. Andrew’s College (Christchurch) (6,6,6,6)
8th Wellington Red Hackle (Gr4) (9,9,7,7)
9th Knox Grammar School (8,8,9,9)
Judges: Stuart Easton, Terry Lee (piping); Chris Stevens (ensemble); Scott Mitchell (drumming)

Grade 4B (17 competed)
Overall
1st ILT City of Invercargill Highland (Gr4B)
2nd Hamilton Caledonian Development
3rd South Canterbury Highland
4th City of Dunedin (New Zealand)
5th St. Andrew’s College
6th Queenstown & Southern Lakes
7th Waimatuku Souther Scenic Highland
8th Ashburton County Scottish Society
9th Celtic (Nelson)
10th Hokonui Celtic
11th Wellington Red Hackle
12 City of Sails
13th Fielding Caledonian
14th McAlpines North Canetrbury
15th Knox Grammar School
16th Kapiti Coast
17th Lindisfarne College
Drumming: ILT City of Invercargill Highland

Medley
1st Hamilton Caledonian Development
2nd South Canterbury Highland
3rd ILT City of Invercargill Highland (Gr4B)
4th St. Andrew’s College (Christchurch)
5th Waimatuku Southern Scenic Highland
6th City of Dunedin (New Zealand)
Drumming: ILT City of Invercargill Highland
Judges: Stuart Easton, Terry Lee (piping); Chris Stevens (ensemble); Scott Mitchell (drumming)

MSR
1st ILT City of Invercargill
2nd City of Dunedin (New Zealand)
3rd Hamilton Caledonian Development
4th South Canterbury Highland
5th St. Andrew’s College (Christchurch)
6th Queenstown & Southern Lakes
Drumming: ILT City of Invercargill
Judges: Liam Kernaghan, Brian Switalla (piping; Paul Turner (ensemble); Ross Levy (drumming)

Juvenile (12 competed)
Overall

Juvenile (12 competed)
Overall
1st St. Andrew’s College A (1,1,2,1)
2nd ILT City of Invercargill Highland Juvie A (2,5,1,2)
3rd Lewis Turrell Memorial Trust Juvenile (3,3,3,3)
4th St. Andrew’s College B (4,2,4,5)
5th South Canterbury & Celtic (Nelson) Combined Youth (6,4,5,6)
6th Canterbury Caledonian Society (5,8,6,4)
7th Papakura (8,7,7,7)
8th ILT City of Invercargill Highland Juvie B (7,9,9,9)
9th Wellington Red Hackle Team Goose (9,6,12,8)
10th Knox Grammar School #2 (11,11,10,11)
11th Lindisfarne College (12,12,11,12)
12th
Judges: Stuart Easton, Terry Lee (piping); Chris Stevens (ensemble); Scott Mitchell (drumming)

An earlier version of this story said that RNZPBA does not hold Street March competitions for Grade 1 and Grade 2 bands. The organization actually runs them for all grades. The article was amended accordingly.