The Staffordshire Band have been forced to make the painful decision to withdraw from the forthcoming English National Brass Band Championships on Saturday June 28th at Preston Guild Hall and have notified the organisers accordingly.

Hockey accident

Unfortunately the band found out last Friday that Adrian Lacey, their bumper-up, had been hit with a hockey ball during a match the night before and had badly broken the thumb (at least!) of his right hand.

With much swelling and bruising still to come out, his hand was going to become much worse before it made any improvement.

I'm sure it won't be the last time the band qualifies for the contest — hopefully next time, we'll have a bit more luck!Shaun Elliott

Untenable situation

Whilst they had an almost full line-up and were borrowing the maximum number deps as cover for two players who were unavailable, they were only playing three on the front row – the loss of one made the situation untenable.

Draw a line

Shaun Elliott, the Band's Chairman told 4BR: "This has come as a huge blow — none more so than to Adrian, who has been playing high standard league hockey for over 25 years with no impact on his banding activities. But these things happen — we'll draw a line under this and move on."

Looking forward

Shaun added: "We were really looking forward to taking part in the English Nationals for the first time and had put in a lot of work into the test piece. Significant improvements were being made every rehearsal and we were looking forward to putting in a fine performance — but that's life. I'm sure it won't be the last time the band qualifies for the contest — hopefully next time, we'll have a bit more luck!"