Northern Meeting goes electronic

The Northern Meeting, one of the Highland piping world’s oldest brand-names, has joined the digital revolution with the launch of a new website that includes, for the first time in its history a method for competitors to enter in another way besides stamped letter-mail.

The Northern Meeting is requesting that prospective competitors register through the site for their eligibility. The Northern Meeting’s sister competitions, the Argyllshire Gathering, introduced online registration on www.obangames.com and entry two years ago, with their system suffering problems along the way.

Pipers will have to submit separate applications to the Argyllshire Gathering and the Northern Meeting on each site, and the two contests will share the information at a meeting February of March.

“I appreciate this means that pipers have to fill in two ‘registrations’ and, as such, means more work for pipers, but hopefully for those pipers taking part in different competitions at both events . . . . the separate registration will be easier,” said Alison Harbison, secretary of the Northern Meeting Piping Competitions.



“Sounds like good news to me, and will hopefully reduce some of the confusion involved with registering online for one gathering and on paper for another,” said Jenny Hazzard of Edinburgh who has competed at both events for several years. “This should also eliminate potential for applications being lost in the post, which has happened on occasion before, and reduce time and hassle for international competitors.

“The key will be ensuring that all players are kept well informed of the new development, all the deadlines, and their (accurate) eligibility rulings, which has been a bit of a problem with the Argyllshire Gathering online entry system.”

The Northern Meeting Piping Competitions have been held since the early 1800s, interrupted only during the Great War. The piping events in 2005 were moved to Aviemore, Scotland, for the first time in their history, having always previously been held in Inverness, Scotland.

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