Field Marshal Montgomery gained the 2016 World Pipe Band Championship at Glasgow Green, the eleventh in the band’s storied history, in variable but mainly dry conditions rising to about 17 degrees, placing ahead of the 11 other Grade 1 bands that made the final round after a full day of competition on Friday. Each band competed in a march, strathspey & reel event first, then a medley in the afternoon.
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A fourth in piping and a fifth in drumming – each uncharacteristic of the band’s results in 2016 – essentially cost Inveraray & District the title, losing to Field Marshal Montgomery by a single point. Inveraray had been the choice of many in the pipe band world to win the event. Inveraray was later announced the winner of the RSPBA’s Champion of Champions band and drumming prizes for most aggregate points at the association’s five major championships.
The Grade 1 medley marked the final competition for drummer Jim Kilpatrick, who concluded a career of more than 50 years in which he amassed more prizes by far than any drummer in pipe band history. The RSPBA did not acknowledge Kilpatrick’s contribution in any way, but his band, the Spirit of Scotland, paid homage to him by marching on as the final band in the hours-long march past with Kilpatrick and his drum section at the front of the group.
Johnstone won the Grade 2 event for the second year in a row, virtually guaranteeing the band an upgrade, and Police Service of Northern Ireland wrapped up a stellar season with a second in the same grade, also in all probability locking a move up. The final announcement of the Grade 1 results was not made until about 8:30 pm GMT, in near darkness, when the BBC trained its cameras directly on Field Marshal Montgomery and a fake decoy crew on Inveraray & District, raising each band’s hopes that they had won the event, and communicating to other contending bands that they had not.
Grade 1
Overall (12 competed)
1st Field Marshal Montgomery (Northern Ireland)
2nd Inveraray & District (Scotland)
3rd St Laurence O’Toole (Ireland)
4th Shotts & Dykehead (Scotland)
5th ScottishPower (Scotland)
6th Police Scotland Fife (Scotland)
7th Simon Fraser University (Canada)
8th Spirit of Scotland (Scotland)
9th Greater Glasgow Police (Scotland)
10th 78th Fraser Highlanders (Canada)
11th Manawatu Scottish (New Zealand)
12th New Zealand Police
Drumming: St. Laurence O’Toole
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