Stylish 'Open' return for Rothwell

Christopher Thomas reports from the Grand Shield Contest in Blackpool's Winter Gardens

Despite the result of this year's Yorkshire Regional Championships having come as a jolt of almost seismic proportions to some, no such shockwaves emanated from Blackpool's Winter Gardens last Saturday, when David Roberts and a jubilant Rothwell Temperance Band secured Grand Shield victory in style, coupled with a coveted place at Symphony Hall to tackle the epic challenges of Hermann Pallhuber's Titan's Progress in September. The 2006 Masters Champion was at the peak of its form with a brilliantly executed performance of Wilfred Heaton's Contest Music that aptly summed up the band's contesting ethic of sheer hard work and painstaking preparation.
Joining Rothwell in Birmingham will be Virtuosi GUS, following a fullblooded, yet highly musical reading that endured in the minds of adjudicators, William Relton and Nigel Boddice, from a comparatively early number five draw. For John Berryman and his band, it was a richly deserved result that will, no doubt, go some way to quell the disappointment of having missed out on Midlands qualification for the Royal Albert Hall later in the year.