After the slick way in which the presentations were handled at both the recent Lower Section National Finals in Harrogate, many people who 4BR spoke to at the Royal Albert Hall were disappointed and frustrated at the long winded post contest entertainment and awards ceremony on Saturday.

Under rehearsed

Grimethorpe Colliery provided the musical interlude before the announcement of the results with a short ‘Queen’ inspired programme that for many sounded under rehearsed.

Blighted

Meanwhile, the awards presentation was blighted by a rather undistinguished performance from announcer Sheila Tracey, as the hoped for climax of the day went on for far too long.

The announcement of the winners was terrible – the fanfare team needed to be kick started. How much did they get paid for half a minutes work?Disgruntled punter

Awful

One regular contest goer told 4BR: "You can’t blame Grimethorpe given the hat trick attempt, but it did sound as if they hadn’t given it a great deal of time in rehearsal. The attempt at singing was awful."

Floundering

Others felt that Sheila Tracey was not on the top of her game either: "She was embarrassing," a regular contest goer told 4BR. "She couldn’t get names right and was floundering not knowing what was going on. The announcement of the winners was terrible – the fanfare team needed to be kick started. How much did they get paid for half a minutes work?"

Numbers down

On a day when audience numbers did appear to be down – the hall was barely two thirds full for even the best bands with the top tier and the main floor and stalls exposing row upon row of empty seats, the drawn out ending to the day produced a degree of frustration.

As one rather unhappy punter added: "All people want after a long day is a short break, some words from the judges and perhaps the sponsor and then the results. It wasn’t very good this year – too long and boring."