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Bathgate Competition 25th May2002 |
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Bathgate Competition 25th May2002 |
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Posing with the Trohpy for third place in Grade four at Bathgate are from left to right
Roddy McIntyre, Stevie Domingo, Derek McGlone and Cammy Renwick .
Once again there were cries of we wuz robbed as Hawick
Pipe Band came only third in grade four at Bathgate and West Lothian Highland
Games. It's true to say that nobody on this earth knows what goes on inside a
judges head and on Saturday 25th of May it was no different, our chanters were
bang on and our drones were singing,
the tempo was nice and jaunty and to top
off a fine display, there weren't any blooters (well done Boff) we even
had the opposition worried as they stayed back for a listen but no, the judge
deemed us only third best on the day. Ears and cloth are but two words that
spring to mind although not necessarily in that order, other thoughts that came
to mind that I could associate with the judges impaired hearing was that of a
certain kind of tinned meat that we import from Argentina, and finishing off
with the meat of a rather elderly sheep, In fact two of our pipers (who
shall remain nameless) stayed back after they had played in grade four so as
they could listen to the 71st Engineer Regiment as they came third at the
Scottish Championships the week before at Dumbarton and decided after their
second tune not to bother listening to the rest as they thought "nothing to
worry about here" and then went about their way, yet at the end of the
competition when we looked at the over all summaries the judges had their pipers
finishing first,. Yep no accounting for taste then. Overall winner in Grade four
was Tweedvale so congratulations to them, I didn't manage 
to get to hear them so
I can't make any comparisons between them and us, and in true gentlemanly
fashion their pipey went out of his way to shake my hand as I made my way up to
the stage to accept our prize.
71st Engineer Regiment came second in Grade four how they managed that I'll never know but well done them.
Hawick Pipe Band came in third after a stupendous
display which deserved a lot better, but like I said before the men with ears of
cloth saw fit to bestow us with third.
Grade 3
No complaints however with our performance in grade three, we were absolute mince and we cannae blame the drummers for this yin, we had eight pipers which should have given off a decent sound but nobody seemed to be switched on or fired up for this one and simply went through the motions, we were all over the place which was quite embarrassing, and in the end we got what we deserved in Grade three which was absolutely nothing. Better luck next time lads.
A couple of good things did happen on the day, one of them being Stevie Domingo finally got himself a brand new cape and boy is he quite chuffed with it, only trouble is he now looks like one of those things out of Dr Who, you know the things that go about shouting "exterminate exterminate" and Boff saw a picture of a nudey woman for the first time.
Picture above: Top Right: Cammy with his harem of females and judging by Donna Morris's face you'd think he had a third hand
Picture above: Center Left: A confident looking Hawick Pipe Band on their way to Bathgate, crammed like sardines in hired minibus
Picture above: Bottom Right: Hogganear shows what he thinks of the trophy by pretending to tie his shoelace. Nobody bothered having a drink out of the cup that night.