World Champions 2019: Inveraray & District

Glasgow – August 17, 2019 – Inveraray & District marched off with the title of 2019 World Pipe Band Champions following two days of intense competition at Glasgow Green in an amazing display of pipe band virtuosity. The Grade 1 competition comprised 15 bands playing in mirrored events on both Friday and Saturday, all performances counting towards the final result.

It was the second win of the World’s for the band, and the second in two years. The band missed the 2018 title with a second. Inveraray also wrapped up the RSPBA’s 2019 Champion of Champion’s title.

In the 30-band Grade 2 competition, St. Thomas Alumni of Houston emerged victorious in the 12-band final in what was perhaps the most tightly contested event for that grade in years. The win for St. Thomas made it back-to-back Grade 2 World’s wins for American bands, after City of Dunedin of Florida took the 2018 prize.

Sri Dasmesh of Malaysia won the Grade 4B championship, the first time that an Asian band has ever taken a first prize at the World’s.

All of the Grade 1 events were live-streamed for free, the Friday contest via a private company and the Saturday via the UK’s publicly-funded BBC Scotland.

First prize in Grade 1 was £1,500. A band such as the Grade 1 Canterbury Caledonian Society of New Zealand would have spent more than $125,000 on their trip to Scotland.

The march past began at 5:30 pm, and the final result was announced at nearly 8 pm. Bands on the field had to weather significant rain while they waited.

The RSPBA’s website was offline for much of the latter part of the day.

Grade 1 (15 competed, 2 X medley and 2 X MSR)
1st Inveraray & District (Scotland) (41 total ranking points)
2nd Field Marshal Montgomery (Northern Ireland) (44)
3rd St. Laurence O’Toole (Ireland) (58)
4th ScottishPower (Scotland) (65)
5th Simon Fraser University (Canada) (68)
6th Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate (Scotland) (93)
7th Police Scotland Fife (Scotland) (108)
8th Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia (Scotland) (120)
9th Glasgow Police (Scotland) (176)
10th Johnstone (Scotland) (177)
11th 78th Fraser Highlanders (Canada) (181)
12th Canterbury Caledonian Society (New Zealand) (182)
13th Lomond & Clyde (Scotland) (185)
14th Glasgow Skye Association (Scotland) (200)
15th Police Service of Northern Ireland (222)
Drumming: St. Laurence O’Toole

Friday
Medley
1st Inveraray & District (1,3,2,3)
2nd Field Marshal Montgomery (2,1,7,1)
3rd ScottishPower (5,2,4,2)
4th St. Laurence O’Toole (4,4,3,4)
5th Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia (ens.pref.) (3,6,5,5)
6th Simon Fraser University (6,5,1,7)
7th Police Scotland Fife (8,7,6,8)
8th Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia (7,14,9,6)
9th Johnstone (11,11,8,10)
10th 78th Fraser Highlanders (10,13,10,11)
11th Glasgow Police ((9,9,15,12)
12th Canterbury Caledonian Society (13,12,13,9)
13th Lomond & Clyde (12,10,12,14)
14th Glasgow Skye Association (14,8,14,13)
15th Police Service of Northern Ireland (15,15,11,15)
Judges: Alvis Kerr, Jim Wark (piping); Brian Martin (drumming); John Moles (ensemble)

MSR
1st St. Laurence O’Toole (2,2,1,1)
2nd Inveraray & District (1,1,4,3)
3rd Field Marshal Montgomery (3,3,5,2)
4th ScottishPower (6,6,2,4)
5th Police Scotland Fife (ens.pref.) (7,8,3,5)
6th Simon Fraser University (4,4,8,7)
7th Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia (5,5,7,8)
8th Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia (10,9,6,6)
9th Canterbury Caledonian Society (8,7,15,10)
10th Johnstone (12,12,9,9)
11th Lomond & Clyde (11,10,12,12)
12th 78th Fraser Highlanders (ens.pref.) 13,11,10,13)
13th Glasgow Police (9,13,11,14)
14th Glasgow Skye Association (14,14,13,11)
15th Police Service of Northern Ireland (15,15,14,15)
Judges: Barry Donaldson, Ronnie McShannon (piping); Gordon Craig (drumming); Jim Campbell (ensemble)

Saturday
Medley
1st Simon Fraser University (3,1,5,3)
2nd ScottishPower (ens.pref.) (6,5,1,1)
3rd Inveraray & District (4,3,2,4)
4th Field Marshal Montgomery (2,4,6,2)
5th St. Laurence O’Toole (ens.pref.) (5,8,3,4)
6th Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia (1,2,9,9)
7th Police Scotland Fife (7,6,7,6)
8th Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia (9,7,4,7)
9th 78th Fraser Highlanders (8,11,10,12)
10th Johnstone (15,13,8,8)
11th Canterbury Caledonian Society (ens.pref.) (12,14,11,11)
12th Glasgow Police (ens.pref.) (11,9,15,13)
13th Glasgow Skye Association (10,10,14,14)
14th Lomond & Clyde (14,12,13,10)
15th Police Service of Northern Ireland (13,15,12,15)
Judges: Colin Moffett, Peter Snaddon (piping); Bill Black (drumming); Paul Turner (ensemble

MSR
1st Field Marshal Montgomery (1,1,2,2)
2nd Inveraray & District (2,2,5,1)
3rd Simon Fraser University (3,4,34)
4th St. Laurence O’Toole (4,5,1,6)
5th ScottishPower (5,3,10,3)
6th Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia (7,6,4,5)
7th Police Scotland Fife (8,8,7,7)
8th Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia (6,7,11,8)
9th Glasgow Police (10,9,8,9)
10th Lomond & Clyde (12,13,6,12)
11th Canterbury Caledonian Society (9,12,15,11)
12th 78th Fraser Highlanders (13,10,13,13)
13th Johnstone (ens.pref.) (14,14,19,14)
14th Glasgow Skye Association (11,11,14,15)
15th Police Service of Northern Ireland (15,15,12,10)
Judges: Bill Garrett, Gordon Lawrie (piping); Mark Wilson (drumming); David Brown (ensemble)

Grade 2 (MSR final; 12 in final, 30 competed overall)
1st St. Thomas Alumni (USA) (1,1,7,1)
2nd Closkelt (Northern Ireland) (3,2,6,3)
3rd Pipeband Club (Australia) (4,6,3,2)
4th Celtic Nelson (New Zealand) (2,3,10,5)
5th Peel Regional Police (Canada) (5,4,11,4)
6th Uddingston Strathclyde (Scotland) (ens.pref.) (10,7,5,6)
7th Mannorcunningham (Ireland) (6,10,4,8)
8th Worcester Kiltie (USA) (7,5,9,9)
9th Royal Burgh of Annan (Scotland) (8,8,8,7)
10th Ravara (Northern Ireland (11,11,1,10)
11th Los Angeles Scots (USA) (12,12,2,12)
12th Portlethen & District (Scotland) (9,9,12,11)
Drumming: Ravara (Northern Ireland)
Final judges: Ken Eller, Peter Hunt (piping); Sandy Steele (drumming); Nat Russell (ensemble)

Grade 3A (medley, 21 competed)
1st St. Joseph’s (Ireland) (11,3,2,1)
2nd Stockbridge (Scotland) (7,7,1,2)
3rd St. Mary’s Derrytrasna (Northern Ireland) (2,5,4,8)
4th City of Inverness (Scotland) (3,2,15,3)
5th Beinn an tuirc Kintyre (Scotland) (1,4,7,11)
6th The Highlanders 4 Scots (Scotland) (4,1,18,4)
Judges: Alan Ronaldson, Tom Brown (piping ); Alex Dudgeon (drumming); Tony Sloane (ensemble)

Grade 3B (medley, 22 competed)
1st Tullylagan (Northern Ireland) (1,2,2,4)
2nd Oban High School (Scotland) (2,1,9,2)
3rd MacNeilstown (Northern Ireland) (6,5,8,1)
4th Kilmarnock (Scotland) (7,3,13,3)
5th Dunbar Royal British Legion (Scotland) (12,8,5,10)
6th Belgian Blend (Belgium) (10,10,10,6)
Drumming: Williamwood (Scotland)
Judges: Terry Lee, George Wilson (piping); Sandy Russell (drumming); Gordon Craig (ensemble)

Juvenile (MSR, six competed)
1st Dollar Academy (Scotland) (1,2,3,1)
2nd George Watson’s College (Scotland) (2,1,1,3)
3rd George Heriot’s School (Scotland) (4,5,2,2)
4th St. Thomas Episcopal School (USA) (6,4,4,4)
5th Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia (Juvenile) (Scotland) (5,3,6,5)
6th Prestonlodge High School (Scotland) (3,6,5,6)
Judges: Colin Moffett, Peter Snaddon (piping); Bill Black (drumming); Paul Turner (ensemble)

Grade 4A (prescribed MSR; 12 in final, 31 competed overall)
1st Glenrothes & District 2010 (Scotland)
2nd Methil & District (Scotland)
3rd Edradour Pitlochry & Blair Atholl
4th McDonald Memorial
5th Augharan
6th Lower Clyde (Scotland)
Drumming: Glenrothes & District 2010
Final judges: Alvis Kerr, Jim Semple (piping); Gordon Parkes (drumming); Cameron Edgar (ensemble)

Grade 4B (prescribed march medley; 12 in final, 41 competed overall)
1st Sri Dasmesh (Malaysia)
2nd Culter & District (Scotland)
3rd Camelon & District (Scotland)
4th Vale of Atholl (Scotland)
5th Mountjoy (Northern Ireland)
6th William Kerr Memorial (Northern Ireland)
Drumming: Sri Dasmesh
Final judges: Brian Switalla, Ross Walker (piping); Paul Brown (drumming); Ciaran Mordaunt (ensemble)

Juvenile A (prescribed MSR, eight competed)
1st North Lanarkshire Schools
2nd West Lothian Schools
3rd George Watson’s College Novice
4th Dollar Academy
5th Stirling & District Schools
6th Lochalsh Junior
Drumming: North Lanarkshire Schools
Judges: William Garrett, Gordon Lawrie (piping); Mark Wilson (drumming); David Brown (ensemble)

Novice B (prescribed march medley, 21 competed)
1st Capital District Youth
2nd Renfrewshire Schools
3rd North Lanarkshire Schools
4th Kintyre Schools
5th Lochgelly High School
6th Bucksburn & District Novice
Drumming: Capital District Youth
Judges: Ronnie McShannon, Maurice Rhodes (piping); Greg Dinsdale (drumming); Jennifer Hutcheon (ensemble)

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