It proved to be the ‘Psalm again’ for Grimethorpe Colliery Band and conductor Allan Withington at Preston Guild Hall on Saturday night, as they retained their English National title with victory on Robert Redhead’s set work, ‘Infinity’.

Inspiration

With its inspiration coming from ‘Psalm 8’ of the Bible, Grimethorpe dug deep into its musical reserves to go to ‘Infinity and beyond’ in winning the £4,000 top prize and with it the all important qualification spot as English representatives to the 2009 European Championships in Ostend in 2009.

Grimethorpe managed to pip Black Dyke’s powerful account into second place under Nicholas Childs, with Brighouse & Rastrick’s vibrant performance directed by Alan Morrison taking third,

A delighted Mount Charles under Andrew Duncan took fourth spot ahead of Fodens Richardson with Garry Cutt in fifth and Hepworth (Cookson Homes) directed by Ian Porthouse in sixth.

Off the number 8 draw, Grimethorpe’s performance was characterised by superlative ensemble and solo playing4BR

Superlative

Off the number 8 draw, Grimethorpe’s performance was characterised by superlative ensemble and solo playing, with the band’s soprano cornet player Kevin Crockford on brilliant form. He deservedly took the Soloist Award and £250 on a day when the taxing soprano part took more than its fair share of casualties, with many bands opting to play the difficult solo lines on cornet.

Agreement

The adjudicators, David Read, Chris Wormald and Nigel Boddice were in full agreement over the top two places, but told 4BR that they had no problem in picking out the winners – although they felt that both Grimethorpe and second placed Black Dyke more than deserved to qualify for the Europeans.

There was obvious disappointment on the faces of many Black Dyke supporters after the announcement of the results, but as Nigel Boddice told the audience, the main difference between the top two bands was the emotional concept and intuition the winners brought to the music – and for them that was what Allan Withington and Grimethorpe did so gloriously well.