2014 British Pipe Band Champions: Field Marshal Montgomery

Bathgate, Scotland – May 31, 2014 – Field Marshal Montgomery won the British Pipe Band Championship, the first of the five RSPBA majors in 2014. The band finished on top in the 12-band medley contest, in sunny and warm weather. It was the sixth consecutive RSPBA major win for the band. The 2014 British included a few other significant firsts in that it was the championship debut for Alen Tully as pipe-major of the St. Laurence O’Toole Pipe Band of Dublin, after taking the place of his father, Terry, following several decades in charge of the 2010 World Champions.

Results in Grade 1 were scattered, with Inveraray & District receiving a 10th and a 2nd in piping being one of the widest separations. ScottishPower was first overall in piping, but down in drumming, which St. Laurence O’Toole won. Hometown favourites Boghall & Bathgate were second, and Torphichen & Bathgate won Grade 2, overcoming Northern Ireland’s Bleary & District’s two firsts in piping. Bleary was buried by a ninth in ensemble.

The contest was also the first for the “Tiny Torphies,” the Grade 2 Torphichen & Bathgate Pipe Band’s new Novice Juvenile band, after a training program was started in 2011. The young band is led by Andrew Gray, whose younger sister, Rachel, is pipe-major of the James Gillespies High School Pipe Band of Edinburgh, and at age 18 is one of the youngest pipe-majors ever.

Grade 1 (medley, 12 entered)
1st Field Marshal Montgomery (1,3,3,3)
2nd Boghall & Bathgate (5,4,2,1)
3rd St. Laurence O’Toole (3,7,1,2)
4th ScottishPower (2,1,7,5)
5th Inveraray & District (10,2,4,4)
6th Greater Glasgow Police (4,5,5,7)
Drumming: St. Laurence O’Toole
Judges: James Wark, Ronnie McShannon (piping); David Brown (drumming); Jim Baxter (ensemble)

Grade 2 (MSR, 15 entered)
1st Torphichen & Bathgate (3,2,4,1)
2nd Buchan (4,5,1,2)
3rd Bleary & District (1,1,3,9)
4th Lomond & Clyde (6,4,2,6)
5th Glasgow Skye (7,3,5,4)
6th Mackenzie Caledonia (2,8,8,5)
Drumming: Buchan
Judges: James Campbell, William Garrett (piping); Sandy Steele (drumming); Trevor Dear (ensemble)