Krogh, Birkett take major awards at first event of Peel online solo season

The Internet – May 30, 2020 – The first of four online solo competitions organized by the Peel Regional Police Pipe Band of Brampton, Ontario, attracted nearly 150 pipers and drummers eager to test their mettle against others from around the world. The band has organized a “season” of streamed events to help fill the gap left by the shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. John Cairns and Bob Worrall judged the piping events, and Larry Willis covered the drumming.

The contest ran for longer than 14 hours in order to accommodate players from time zones around the world.

“We recognize that we were breaking new ground with regard to how online contests could be conducted in the future, and we anticipated that there would likely be technological or logistical hurdles,” said Cairns, who is pipe-major of the Peel Police Grade 2 band. “To help mitigate some of this risk, we spent 15-plus hours last week doing MS Teams test runs with every interested competitor so the competitor could test their mic and video camera and feel comfortable using MS Teams. We wanted to do our best to avoid having any issues on the day which would no doubt have rattled the competitors.

“We came up with the idea of using the competitors’ cell phones (i.e., through text) as a way to establish communication with them as soon as they entered the MS Teams lobby (waiting area). We felt this would help the competitors to know exactly when they were going to be competing. We had a band member act as the steward to look after this. I want to thank them for doing a great job – not only in keeping the competitors informed on their playing time but in helping anyone who had difficulty signing in or to resolve a technical issue.

“As this was the first live contest in our series, we knew that even though we thought we had prepared as well as we could have, that there would undoubtedly be some minor adjustments needed as we went along to address any unforeseen issues that arose. Thankfully, the judges and competitors were all very accommodating and we were able to refine what we were doing so that the contests ran smoothly.

“I am thrilled to say that other than a few players who had to cancel due to personal reasons, every player was able to compete successfully, and we did not have any player breakdowns.”

The next Peel Police event is on June 27, and Cairns added, “We have numerous other high profile judges lined up for our future contests so that we can offer a variety of perspectives for the competitors.”

Solo Piping
Professional
1st Teddy Krogh, Anchorage, Alaska
2nd Sean Patrick Regan, Pittsburgh
3rd Alastair Murray, Pittsburgh

Grade 1
1st Liam MacDonald, Wellesley, Ontario
2nd Justin Howland, Bluff, Utah
3rd Jim Malcolm, Pictou, Nova Scotia
4th Charles-David Mitchell, Ottawa
5th Gillian Blaney, Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia
6th Dane Grant, Caribou Island, Nova Scotia

Grade 2
1st Cameron Bonar, North Vancouver, British Columbia
2nd Ellie Hastings, Windsor, Ontario
3rd Andrew Hill, Edmonton, Alberta
4th Carmela Stamper
5th Nigel Smedmor, Ontario
6th Thomas McCollum, Brampton, Ontario

Grade 3
1st Logie Johnston, Bunessan, Scotland
2nd Reece Calovini
3rd Archie Johnston, Bunessan, Scotland
4th Noah Yateman, Prescott, Ontario
5th Ronald Woodaman, Stafford, Virginia
6th Robert Anderson

Grade 4
1st Jared Bailey
2nd Stella Jacoby
3rd Evan McConkey
4th Bill Zadra, Fridley, Minnesota
5th Beatrix Carter
6th Megan McElhinney

Grade 5
1st Shirley Park
2nd Ross McLennan
3rd Mike Conway
4th Brian Sim-Little
5th John Arthur
6th Noah Davies

Solo Drumming
Snare
Professional
1st Neil Birkett, Dundas, Ontario
2nd Harvey Dawson, Toronto

Grade 1
1st Cole Chisholm
2nd Thomas Cuming

Grade 2
1st Charles Macleod
2nd Connor Higgs

Grade 3
1st David Bradley

Grade 4
1st Erica Cheyne
2nd Ethan Higgs
3rd Christopher Murray
4th Gabriel Armstrong

Grade 5
1st Thoreyn Jorgensen
2nd Owen Yateman
3rd Duncan Fox
4th Michelle Guzman

Tenor
Grade 1
1st Andrea Jackson

Grade 2
1st Jacqueline Terence

Grade 3
1st Ashleigh Reeve

Grade 4
1st Rachel Hillock
2nd Char Yettaw

Grade 5
1st Kryianna Jorgensen
2nd Gale Walker

Bass
Grade 2
1st Drew Ellis

Grade 3
1st Gale Walker
2nd Tommy Madigan

Grade 4
1st Mark Glassford

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May 11, 2020

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