The victory of Newstead Brass at the recent Rochdale Contest brought the Midlands Area band the title and a return to the British Open Spring Festival in 2025.

Personal milestone

However, it also marked a wonderful personal milestone for tuba player Mike Allcock who has played with the band for 48 years. The contest was his 200th — and was celebrated by what was a 48th victory.

Mike's first contest was in the Fourth Section at the North East Derbyshire District Council Brass Band Festival in 1976, having joined the learner band a year before.

Ever since he has enjoyed contesting from local events to the National Final at the Royal Albert Hall and Symphony Hall and was an ever present member of the 27 year tenure of former MD Duncan Beckley who he played under for 130 contest appearances.

Double century

Speaking about his achievement the popular bandsman said: "Some of the younger players showed me how to record the contests I'd played at on the brassbandresults.co.uk website. I decided to record my contests with Newstead and found that Saturday's contest at Rochdale brought up my double century."

I didn't know I had done so many really — and I've enjoyed them all, although it would be great to bring up 50 wins in this, the band's 50th anniversary year."