Low-key victory for Desford in the Midlands

by Christopher Thomas

It was in 2003 that Desford Colliery last retained the Midland Regional Championship and, by rights, the band's victory in Bedworth on Sunday should have been a reason to celebrate in style, as it not only sealed the crown and a place at the Royal Albert Hall come October, but also cemented its recently-formed relationship with Russell Gray. The fact that this year's win had something of a hollow feel about it, however, was in part down to the fact that most of the players had already left Bedworth Civic Hall by the time the results were announced, frustrated by the band's performance of Salute to Youth. It was a situation that contributed to a strangely subdued response to John Slater's announcement of the 2009 Champion. Subdued, that is, in contrast to the delighted cheers of Newstead, which will join Desford as this year's Midland representatives in London.

On one level, the Championship Section contest at Bedworth was one of the most open in recent memory, with little consensus around the hall as to who was likely to emerge as the ultimate victor. Consider the reasons for the lack of a popular vote, however, and the openness of the pre-results speculation begins to look a little less positive. The simple fact of the matter is that not one of the bands in Bedworth succeeded in fully avoiding the challenges of Gilbert Vinter's first work for brass band, and it was a failure that resulted in a sense of some frustration amongst those hardy souls in the audience who had listened to all 13 contenders. Brian Buckley's comment during his summing up, that the challenges of Vinter's work remained "formidable" nearly 50 years after its composition, might just have been a gentlemanly swipe at 13 fundamentally disappointing performances.