Canterbury Caledonian: 2020 New Zealand Champions

Invercargill, New Zealand – March 13-14, 2020 – Canterbury Caledonian Society of Christchurch, New Zealand, successfully defended its title by winning the 2020 New Zealand Championships, held over two days at Queen’s Park. It was the band’s first competition with Lead-Drummer Michael Jenkins, who assumed the role in November 2019 from Brayden Drummond, and the first appearance for the band in the New Zealand competition season. Manawatu Scottish was second, but took two firsts in drumming, winning that prize for the second straight year.

Hometown ILT City of Invercargill took straight firsts to win the Grade 2 title. The Invercargill pipe band organization fielded five bands across the various events.

The contest saw relatively fewer “fly-in” players from around the world, perhaps in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and travel concerns.

With four Grade 1 bands and now possibly five after the success of City of Invercargill, New Zealand as a country has the highest rate of top-grade bands outside of Scotland per-capita with its population of fewer than five-million.

Grade 1
Overall (four competed)
1st Canterbury Caledonian Society
2nd Manawatu Scottish
3rd New Zealand Police
4th Auckland & District

Medley
1st Canterbury Caledonian Society (1,1,1,2)
2nd Manawatu Scottish (2,2,2,1)
3rd New Zealand Police (3,3,3,3)
4th Auckland & District (4,4,4,4)
Judges: Terry Tully, Martin Frewen (piping); Stevens (ensemble); Mitchell (drumming)

MSR
1st Canterbury Caledonian Society (1,2,1,2)
2nd Manawatu Scottish (2,1,2,1)
3rd Auckland & District (3,4,3,4)
4th New Zealand Police (4,3,4,3)
Judges: Brian Switalla, Turnbull (piping); Paul Turner (ensemble); Levy (drumming)

Grade 2
Overall (seven competed)
1st ILT City of Invercargill
2nd St. Andrew’s College A
3rd Wellington Red Hackle
4th Celtic (Nelson)
5th Scottish Society of New Zealand
6th Hamilton Caledonian
7th Northland Caledonian

Medley
1st ILT City of Invercargill (1,1,1,1)
2nd Celtic (Nelson) (4,4,2,3)
3rd Wellington Red Hackle (3,2,7,4)
4th St. Andrew’s College A (2,5,3,7)
5th Hamilton Caledonian (5,3,6,5)
6th Scottish Society of New Zealand (7,7,5,2)
7th Northland Caledonian (6,6,4,6)
Judges: Brian Switalla, Turnbull (piping); Paul Turner (ensemble); Levy (drumming)

MSR
1st ILT City of Invercargill (1,1,1,1)
2nd St. Andrew’s College A (2,3,2,3)
3rd Scottish Society of New Zealand 5,4,4,2)
4th Wellington Red Hackle (3,2,5,5)
5th Celtic (Nelson) (4,5,6,4)
6th Hamilton Caledonian (7,6,3,7)
7th Northland Caledonian (6,7,7,6)
Judges: Terry Tully, Martin Frewen (piping); Stevens (ensemble); Mitchell (drumming)

Grade 3
1st Manawatu Scottish No. 2
2nd Canterbury Caledonian Society’s (Gr3)
3rd City of Tauranga
4th HB Caledonian
5th City of Auckland

Grade 4A
1st Hokonui Celtic
2nd Celtic (Nelson) (Gr4)
3rd ILT City of Invercargill (Gr4)
4th Papakura
5th Brisbane Boys College Old Collegians
6th Canterbury Caledonian Society
7th Wellington Red Hackle
8th Balclutha
9th St Andrew’s College
10th Waimatuku Southern Scenic

Grade 4B
1st City of Rotorua
2nd Hamilton Caledonian Society No.2
3rd Scottish Society of New Zealand #2
4th ILT City of Invercargill #3
5th City of Dunedin
6th McAlpines North Canterbury
7th South Canterbury Development
8th John McGlashan College
9th Bay of Plenty
10th Ashburton
11th Clan Gordon
12th Queenstown & Southern Lakes
13th Alexandra

Juvenile
1st ILT City of Invercargill Juvenile A
2nd St Andrew’s College A
3rd Celtic (Nelson)
4th St Andrew’s College B
5th Lewis Turrell Memorial Trust
6th Canterbury Caledonian Society
7th John McGlashan College
8th ILT City of Invercargill Juvenile B
9th Lindisfarne College

Related

Canterbury Caledonian return as New Zealand Champions
March 30, 2019

Leadership changes for New Zealand’s Canterbury Caledonian
November 16, 2019

Perfect scores for New Zealand Police at NZ Champs
March 10, 2018