Darwen Brass has issued its official statement in respect to their disqualification from the recent North West Fourth Section Regional Championship contest in Blackpool.

Statement

4BR was informed that the statement would be issued as follows. It has also been published on the band's Facebook page. No other statement will be forthcoming at present.

"As you can imagine the news of our disqualification has come as a huge shock to our band and we are currently going through every emotion possible, it's terribly upsetting especially given our placing.

As the appeal process and implementation is currently under discussion, it is obviously prudent not to go into detail publicly surrounding our disqualification. The facts of the circumstances will come out soon enough.

We worked hard for our result and we certainly didn't use any form of skulduggery to achieve it. We are an honest and hardworking band. The band which played on Sunday is all ours, all fully pledged and committed members of Team Darwen.

Can we take this opportunity to thank the people who have contacted the band and its members directly since this news broke, offering their support, condolences and best wishes, it really has been appreciated through this very stressful time.

We have received some amazing feedback from our performance and this has truly helped us deal with some very open wounds.

Time will tell on the outcome of this case but rest assured Team Darwen will survive to fight another day."