Results

The annual Waipu Highland Games was held on New Year’s Eve instead of the traditional New Year’s Day in mixed conditions were mixed: torrential downpours interrupting a largely sunny, warm day. Thirteen competed in the A Grade events, and Liam Kernaghan won the overall trophy. Sam Foote from Christchurch was the aggregate B Grade champion.

On a Medley preference, Stuart Easton of Palmerston North, New Zealand, won the overall and $500NZD after a tie with Liam Kernaghan, Wellington, at the annual Northcote Invitational Solo Piping Competition at the Northcote Tavern on the North Shore of Auckland. As is tradition, the previous year’s winner, Piers Dover, judged both events. The competition is sponsored by the Auckland & District Pipe Band.

Becky Weir on her way to winning the 2024 Jenny Ma …

Playing nearly 20-year-old refurbished blackwood Sinclair chanters from the band’s storage cupboard, Manawatu Scottish came out strong at the annual Jenny Mair Square Day competition, the second contest of the New Zealand season and the largest event next to the New Zealand Championships. The band enjoyed first-place rankings from all eight judges in hot and windy conditions against Auckland & District and Invercargill. Seventeen bands competed across the four grades.

The final Live Online competition of the 2024 Competing League for Adult Solo Pipers CLASP saw the usual bevy of contestants from around the world performing live via online video, their recorded performances assessed over a few weeks by the judges.

An unusual early season snowstorm causing travel and transit chaos across central Scotland couldn’t keep the annual Livi Invitational Solo Drumming Competition from putting on a great show by some of the world’s greatest pipe band snare drummers, all in aid of Cedarbank School for Learning Disabilities and the Dogs Trust.

Gillian Blaney of Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, won all three events at the 2024 George Sherriff Amateur Invitational to win the overall championship against eight other competitors from around North America. It was the 27th time the competition was held, this year at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church.

Alasdair Henderson was the aggregate winner in the top grades at the 2024 Scottish Piping Society of London’s annual competitions, held at the Caledonian Club in the UK’s capital city, thus securing an invitation to the 2025 Glenfiddich Championships in October. Henderson enjoyed a huge day, winning three of the four events in which he played.

Finlay Johnston of Glasgow won the 2024 Bratach Gorm for piobaireachd at the annual Scottish Piping Society of London solo piping competitions at the Caledonian Club in the heart of the city. It was Johnston’s first time winning the coveted prize.

Callum Beaumont of St. Andrews, Scotland, won the third annual Sun Belt Invitational Solo Piping Competition held at the Orlando Sheraton North Hotel. The professional-level competition had a prize pool of more than US$6,000. It was Beaumont’s second time winning the aggregate prize after winning the 2022 event, the first year the competition was held.

Alex Pavlovic and Nicolas Bowden, both from Houston, were the overall piping and snare drumming winners, respectively, of the 18th Balmoral Classic U.S. Junior Solo Piping & Drumming Championships held at the University of Pittsburgh for players 21 and younger. 

Against nine other elite solo pipers, Callum Beaumont of St. Andrews, Scotland, was the winner of the 2024 Glenfiddich Solo Piping Championships, held again at the Great Hall of Blair Castle in Scotland’s rolling and verdant Perthshire countryside during an always spectacular autumn. It was Beaumont’s second consecutive time winning the championship and his second time overall.

After two gruelling rounds and three plays, Inveraray & District Lead-Drummer Steven McWhirter gained the 2024 World Solo Drumming Champion title against 31 other elite pipe band snare drummers at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Saint Mark Presbyterian Church hosted the 41st Nicol-Brown Amateur Invitational Solo Piping Championship. After completing the three events, Gillian Blaney of Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, emerged as the overall winner.

With an MSR win and a second in the Piobaireachd, Callum Beaumont of St. Andrews, Scotland, emerged the overall winner of the Premier Grade at the annual Captain John MacLellan Memorial Army School Solo Piping Competition at Inchdrewer House, Redford Barracks.