Ottawa Highlanders win at warm Kingston

Kingston, Ontario – May 26, 2018 – A total of 15 bands competed at the annual Kingston Scottish Festival near Canada’s first capital city. The predicted bad weather bypassed the event, and, instead, sunny and humid conditions prevailed, with temperatures reaching 30. The Ottawa Highlanders won the Grade 3 event, the highest-grade competition on the day. The Grade 1 Toronto Police concluded the festivities with Medley and MSR performances. The Festival took a new approach to solo competitions, segmenting events into age brackets, but still grouped by contestants’ home association’s official amateur grading. The competition is run independently by the Rob Roy Pipe Band organization, and is not sanctioned by the Pipers & Pipe Band Society of Ontario.

+ Kingston taking a more Scottish style approach to solos

The Grade 5 Connie Blaney Memorial Youth Pipe Band of Maxville, Ontario, made its debut. The band is named after the late leader of the Glengarry Highland Games.

+ Connie Blaney, 1933-2017

Grade 3 (Medley, three competed)
1st Ottawa Highlanders (1,1,2,1)
2nd Rob Roy (2,2,1,3)
3rd Glengarry (3,3,3,2)
Judges: Glenna MacKay-Johnstone, Lynda MacKay (piping); Doug Stronach (drumming); Ken Eller (ensemble)

Grade 4 (Medley, four competed)
1st 8 Wing (1,1,1,1)
2nd Paris Port Dover (3,3,2,2)
3rd Durham Regional Police (2,2,3,3)
4th Barrie (4,4,4,4)
Judges: Glenna MacKay-Johnstone, Lynda MacKay (piping); Doug Stronach (drumming); Ken Eller (ensemble)

Grade 5 (March Medley, eight competed)
1st Lindsay (3,3,1,1)
2nd Glengarry (Gr5) (5,1,4,3)
3rd Kingston Police (6,4,2,2)
4th Smiths Falls Gordon (1,5,7,4)
5th Sons of Scotland (4,2,5,7)
6th Rob Roy (Gr5) (8,6,3,5)
7th Syracuse Scottish (2,8,8,6)
8th Connie Blaney Memorial Youth (7,7,6,8)
Judges: Glenna MacKay-Johnstone, Lynda MacKay (piping); Doug Stronach (drumming); Ken Eller (ensemble)