After their thrilling victory on Saturday the lads at Grimethorpe were preparing for a little celebration after booking their place at the 200 European Championships in Ostend.

Principal Cornet Roger Webster told 4BR that the win had been down to a great deal of hard work and an appreciation of a test piece that didn’t initially excite the players.

Knuckle down

"When we first looked at the piece we felt that it didn’t hold many problems – but we soon found out that it held lots of them. We really had to knuckle down on this one and get to grips with both the musical and technical challenges. It was much trickier than it first looked."

This is a great win for the band and sets us up for the major contests for the rest of the yearRoger Webster

Worthwhile

Professional MD Allan Withington made sure of that and in the past week Roger felt the piece finally came together. "Allan brings something special to Grimethorpe and he certainly did that again. It’s been hard work, but the result has been well worthwhile.

After the disappointment of Stavanger we were all determined to return to the European as soon as possible. This is a great win for the band and sets us up for the major contests for the rest of the year."

Celebration

As for a Preston celebration, Roger told 4BR that although the band were able to enjoy a celebratory drink or two, the MD was already on his way back to Norway with his children.

"He is in such demand at present that it is a pity we couldn’t get to celebrate the win with him as we would have wanted. I’m sure we will do so again though and we may even have a quiet drink tonight – you never know."