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Bands in the FT

An article on Hammonds Saltaire and the Yorkshire Regional Championships is set to appear in the Financial Times magazine this Saturday by award winning journalist Matthew Engel.

Sy George's Hall
 

Hot on the heels of articles in the 'Times', editorials in the 'Guardian' and even a television programme on BBC2, there is yet more national press coverage to come – and in the 'FT' newspaper no less.

Respected

A feature article will appear in the 'Financial Times' Saturday magazine this weekend, written by one of the UK’s most respected journalists, Matthew Engel.

Matthew came to the Yorkshire Regional Championships after the FT photographer, Lorne Campbell, told him about the event and the story behind the rebranded Hammonds Saltaire Band. Matthew writes regular features in the magazine about stories that interest him, bringing a flavour of the places and people he meets.

I thought they played really well and following 4BR on Twitter, it seemed others, like yourself, liked their performance tooMatthew Engel

Award winner

The former editor of the world famous cricketing 'Wisden Almanack' and award winning journalist on the Guardian and Observer newspapers, took the opportunity to come up from his Herefordshire home and spend Saturday following Hammonds as they prepared to play in the First Section contest.

Warm welcome

4BR caught up with him on Tuesday, and as he explained, he found the whole event both exhilarating as well as a touch bewildering too.

"I had a lovely welcome from the band when I came to see them before the contest, and was rooting for them as they took to the stage. I thought they played really well and following 4BR on Twitter, it seemed others, like yourself, liked their performance too."

The result

So what did he think of the result?

"I’m not qualified to judge, but I did find it a touch bewildering and felt so sorry for the band after they put in so much effort," he said. "The whole contest experience was so fascinating and enjoyable though, and I hope the article will bring that over."

So is he a brass band fan? Mathew added: "Certainly, and I hope to follow up on the story some time in the future. It was a wonderful event, with great people and was very interesting."

The article should appear in the Financial Times magazine this Saturday.

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