The Association of Brass Band Adjudicators (AoBBA) has told 4BR that they have been delighted with the response to their recent 'Young Adjudicators' initiative which was held at the Yorkshire and London & Southern Counties regional championship weekends.

Roll out

Secretary Nick Garman said: "We are conscious that we need to develop an interest in the art of adjudication at an early age and this initiative has proved so successful that we now plan to roll it out nationally from 2020."

AoBBA ran initiatives at Huddersfield and Stevenage this year open to youngsters aged 11 — 18, who were given the opportunity to meet the official adjudicators and adjudicate each performance.

They were encouraged to give their own written remarks and results sheets to later compare with the judges at a post contest debrief.

Everyone who took part stated that they had learned a great deal from the experience and now understood just how difficult the task of adjudicating was. However, they loved it and wanted to do it all again!David Ashworth

Mentor

David Ashworth acted as mentor for this year's participant, and added: "Everyone who took part stated that they had learned a great deal from the experience and now understood just how difficult the task of adjudicating was. However, they loved it and wanted to do it all again!"

AoBBA hopes to encourage further participation for 2020, with anyone who may be interested in finding out more asked to make contact with Martin Heartfield at: musicbloke@aol.com