The 101st North of Ireland Championships held at the Market Place Theatre in Armagh certainly proved to be a memorable occasion for Downshire Brass, as they claimed the NIBA title for the first time in their history.

The Belfast based band formed in 1990 gave a fine performance of 'Diversions on a Bass Theme' by George Lloyd under MD Gary Proctor to claim a clear two point margin of victory over Laganvale Metal Technology, with defending champion 1st Old Boys in third.

Palanga bound

The success means they will represent Northern Ireland in the Challenge Section of the European Brass Band Championships to be held in Palanga in 2020 — the second time they will have competed at the event.

"Well what a day the band had yesterday,"they said on the band's Facebook page. "Championship Section winners at the NIBA contest for the very first time.

Massive thanks to our conductor Gary Proctor for his hard work in recent weeks and thanks also to our MD Michael Alcorn for his help in preparing us for our performance."

Section win

In the other sections there was a first win since 2011 for Roughan Silver as they took the 2nd Grade Brass title with a well worked performance of 'Viking Age' to round off what has been an excellent year following victories at the Spring Festival and Valley Entertainment contests.

Meanwhile, defending champion Wellington Memorial Silver claimed their fifth win in their last seven contest appearances in the 3rd Grade Brass event, whilst Poyntzpass Silver won the 4th Grade.

1st again for Old Boys

The outstanding youngsters of 1st Old Boys Silver Youth Band also claimed their place back at the European Youth Championships in Palanga with a superb display of playing under Jacklin Bingham to claim the deserved 'Best overall Performance' accolade from adjudicator Dr Robert Childs.

"Well what a day the band had yesterday," they said on the Downshire band's Facebook page. "Championship Section winners at the NIBA contest for the very first time"4BR

Results:

Championship Brass:

Adjudicator: Dr Robert Childs
Test Piece: Diversions on a Bass Theme (George Lloyd)

1. Downshire Brass (Gary Proctor) — 97
2. Laganvale Metal Technology (Stephen Crooks) — 95
3. 1st Old Boys Silver (Stephen Cairns) — 94
4. Strabane Brass (Charles Fyffe) — 93
5. Third Carrickfergus (Brian Connolly) — 92
6. Drogheda Brass (Michael Maher) — 91

Best Instrumentalist: Mark Ruddock (soprano) — 1st Old Boys Silver

2nd Grade Brass:

Adjudicator: Dr Robert Childs
Test Piece: Viking Age (Thierry Deleyruelle)

1. Roughan Silver (Stephen Crooks) — 88
2. Comber Silver (Wesley Thompson) — 86
3. Templemore (Jack Burch) — 85
4. CWA Brass (Ernest Ruddock) — 84
5. Navan Silver (Stephen Murray) — 83
6. Lourdes Brass Band (Prof Michael Alcorn) — 82

Best Cornet Section: Roughan Silver
Best Bass Section: Comber Silver

3rd Grade Brass:

Adjudicator: Dr Robert Childs
Test Piece Sinfonietta (Joseph Horovitz)

1. Wellington Memorial Silver (David Hawthorne) — 82
2. Dynamic Brass (Harold Whan) — 81

4th Grade Brass:

Adjudicator: Dr Robert Childs
Test Piece: Anglian Dances (Alan Fernie)

1. Poyntzpass Silver (Bobby Davidson) — 80

Youth Brass:

1. 1st Old Boys Junior Band (Jacklin Bingham) — 83

Best Overall performance of the Day:

1st Old Boys Junior Band