RSPBA messes up World Solo Snare Championship result; overall fifth and sixth places confused

The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association announced the incorrect result for the adult section of the 2023 World Solo Snare Drumming Championship held on October 21st in Glasgow.

At the event, St. Laurence O’Toole Leading-Drummer Stephen Creighton was announced as finishing sixth overall but then published as fifth on the organization’s website.

The association released a hastily-worded ambiguous statement on its website for an “IT issue”:

We are aware of an error in our results page for the 2023 World Solo Drumming Championships. This has been caused by an IT issue and we are working with our team to resolve this as quickly as possible.

The results on the day are correct as shared with competitors as per the format guide. This issue has been caused during the data upload resulting in the website calculation engine returning errors.

We apologies [sic] for any inconvenience this temporary issue may cause.

The Board of Directors

The association issued a paper spreadsheet of all results to each competitor. pipes|drums received photos of the spreadsheet from two sources. The final result on the spreadsheet has Craig Brown fifth and Stephen Creighton sixth, as they were announced at the event.

Both competitors had 57 total points, but, with a tie going first to the competitor who received the most highest places awarded by all judges. The spreadsheet had the higher final placing going to Brown.

The RSPBA rules for breaking ties in the World Solo Drumming Championship Final:

6.1 Heats, Semi Finals & Juvenile Final:
• 1st Preference: Highest number of highest places awarded throughout all Adjudicator
placings.
• 2nd Preference: By Adjudicator preference of all Adjudicators involved, original placings
shall remain unchanged throughout consultation.

6.2 Adult Final:
This preference sequence will be applied during compiling to resolve ties and determine the
winner in the World Solo Drumming Final.
• 1st Preference: Highest number of highest places awarded throughout all Adjudicator
placings.
• 2nd Preference: Highest number of highest places awarded in the MSR performance.
• 3rd Preference: In a competition involving multiple performances, any tie in the overall
result will be decided on MSR preference.
• 4th Preference: By Adjudicator preference of all Adjudicators involved, original placings
shall remain unchanged throughout consultation.

The RSPBA’s other rule on tie-breaks in other solo competitions states:

4.71. In a Solo Piping or Drumming Contest the competition result will be decided by the total of individual placing from
each Adjudicator. The lowest total will be the winner. In the event of a tie the result will be decided by the following
preferences:

1st Preference: In a competition involving multiple performances, any tie in the overall result will be decided on M.S.R. preference.

2nd Preference: Highest number of highest places awarded throughout all Adjudicator placings.

3rd Preference: Highest number of highest places awarded in the MSR. performance.

4th Preference: By Adjudicator preference of all Adjudicators involved, original placings shall remain unchanged
throughout consultation.

The problem was at least the fourth significant results issue in the last two years for the RSPBA.

In July, the world’s most influential pipe band organization announced the incorrect Grade 1 drumming result at the Scottish Pipe Band Championships. It took away the prize from Field Marshal Montgomery 36 hours after the competition, giving it to the rightful winner Inveraray & District instead.

Most notoriously, the association is yet to clarify what happened at the 2023 World Championships after Friday Grade 1 MSR piping judge Nat Russell’s rankings were mysteriously excluded from the final tally.

Last year, after being alerted to an apparent compiling error, the RSPBA admitted that the incorrect result of the Grade 4B event was announced at the 2022 World Championships. The 1st Troon Boys Brigade of Troon, Scotland, won, with Syerla & District of Northern Ireland second. The two bands were announced on the day in the opposite order.

At publication time, RSPBA Chief Executive Colin Mulhern and Board Chair Kevin Reilly had not responded to a request for clarification.