The Competition Season in Review
Dec 1999 - Jan 2000:

WSPD began the season competing in December at the Waikaenai competitions, Palmeston North Square Day, and, in January, at the Turakina Highland Games. The second place at Waikaenae was encouraging even though only four bands competed in Grade IV, and the fourth place at Square Day was also well received. Square Day is the biggest competition in New Zealand, aside from the Nationals, and needless to say the competition was stiff, especially in Grade IV. The four best Grade IV bands in New Zealand are all from the central north island, so Square Day is a real test.

Given our rather late preparation for the season, the band was confident of building up to a good standard for the Nationals in March. DM Sandra Harry gave an inspired motivational speech at Square Day when, waiting to step off for the Street March, the news of our placing came through: "Let's go out there and show them that we can play like a band that can come fourth" - Right sentiment, wrong words!

The 135th Turakina Highland Games (1865-2000) was held on 29th January, with 7 Grade IV bands competing. City of Hastings turned out with a large band and took 1st place, while WSPD took a not too distant 2nd place. We were well pleased with this result, although not as pleased with our actual performance which, of course, was not as good as in our rehearsals (sigh). A nice surprise was that we won the Turakina Highland Society Handicap prize for most improved band from the previous year's result, which came with a $200 cheque! (Check out the MP3 sound files of the band's performance on the downloads page).

Turakina was followed by the combined Centre competition and North Island Championship at Napier in February and the National Pipe Band Competition in Masterton a fortnight later. We managed another 2nd place for the North Island Grade IV set and medley which was thrilling given the standard of competition. Alas, the Nationals did not work out as well. The band was rushed on the day (our fault) and did not settle well for our set and medley, although the consensus was that the medley was the best we have performed it on the board. The band's aggregate result for the set and medley was 10th place, out of 19 competing grade IV bands.

It was more than frustrating to fall behind other grade IV bands we had beaten earlier in the season, especially at Napier the previous fortnight. The drummers managed to win the drumming in the medley however, which was an outstanding achievement. The street march on the following day went better. The chanters were going well, and after some warm up tunes and final tuning of the drones we were more composed when we stepped off. It seemed that almost everyone in Masterton turned out to watch (the weather was perfect) which gave all the bands a lift. We were well pleased at gaining 3rd place in this event out of 19 bands, with the drummers again winning.

Looking back at the season it has been a remarkable success for us, and we have laid the ground work for a strong showing next season. The City of Hastings and City of Rotorua bands are large, have a big sound, and good depth of players. While we did not expect to ever beat these bands (they will probably both be promoted to grade III now) we were pleased to be competitive against other good grade IV bands.