Glenfiddich Championship line-up confirmed
The 10 pipers who are to compete at the 2010 Glenfiddich Invitational Solo Piping Championships at Blair Atholl Castle in Blair Atholl, Scotland, on October 30th have been confirmed officially by the organizers. Each gained an invitation by virtue of prizes won in designated qualifying events.
Bruce Gandy, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia – winner of the Masters Competition
Andrew Hayes, Ottawa – Northern Meeting Gold Medal winner
Faye Henderson, Kirriemuir, Scotland – Argyllshire Gathering Gold Medal winner
Jack Lee, Surrey, British Columbia – winner of the Northern Meeting Clasp
Stuart Liddell, Inveraray, Scotland – Silver Star MSR winner at both Northern Meeting and Argyllshire Gathering and 2009 Glenfiddich Champion and winner of the Bratach Gorm at London
Willie McCallum, Bearsden, Scotland – second-prize at Northern Meeting Silver Star MSR
Angus MacColl, Benderloch, Scotland – numerous prizes at qualifying events
Dr. Angus MacDonald, Portree, Scotland – winner of Argyllshire Gathering Senior Piobaireachd
Roddy MacLeod, Glasgow – numerous prizes at qualifying events
Iain Speirs, Edinburgh – third in the Senior Piobaireachd at the Argyllshire Gathering
The judges for the competitions were also confirmed. The Piobaireachd event will be assessed by Jack Taylor, John Wilson and Andrew Wright, and the MSR will be adjudicated by Colin MacLellan, Malcolm McRae and Bob Worrall.
The “Bean An Tighe,” or emcee, for the event will be Rona Lightfoot (nee MacDonald), who was one of the first female pipers permitted to compete at the Argyllshire Gathering and Northern Meeting in 1975. Faye Henderson this year was the first female to win the Highland Society of London’s Gold Medal.
pipes|drums will,. as always, have results from the competition as they are announced. Readers should also watch for our annual Pick the Glenfiddich Five contest.
I’ll keep this as nice as possible, but it’s a (insert word) shame that Gordon Walker isn’t in. Some pretty big wins, INCLUDING the Silver Chanter, which was cut from the automatic bid list this year. Anyway, a sponsors exemption/invite would be a proper thing I think, that is until someone else gets left out.
I thought it was a typo…no Gordon? Makes no sense!
Of course as someone who is never goig to play in this, I assume that this contest gets more respect than your average PBA, and therefore should be deemed that everything is handled as fairly as possible and completely left to the people directly affected. Good luck to all, and hopefully we’ll see Gordon next year.
Every chosen competitor recieves an official INVITATION to compete in this prestigious contest, so which is it an invitational to the cream of top pipers specialy chosen for their constant achievements or a qualifying contest ? it can not be both. I think after a full year of competing the contestants for this event should be carefully chosen on merit as we all want to hear the best, and if it is a qualifying contest we will end up with unknown individuals who have just struck it lucky leaving top players like Gordon Walker that we want to hear out.
I see Jack lee got an invite for winning a clasp which is very strange because Gordon Walker also won a clasp this year and has been left out. Clearly the organisers of the Glenfiddich need to re think who and how they choose their competitors for this event because the only thing they appear to have got right is the knack of creating bad feeling among participents and audience alike who incidently pay a substancial cost to see this competition and enjoy the evenings entertainment at a celidh