The Whitwell Band was recently crowned the Midlands Fourth Section Champions for the first time in nearly 50 years at Bedworth on the weekend.

Praise

The band, conducted by MD David Fretwell, beat off competition from the 20 band field to take the title, whilst adjudicators Derek Southcott and David Hirst picked out the band's solo cornet David Wheatley and euphonium Ryan Stacey for special praise.

This is the culmination of a lot of hard work and effort put in by the band over the last couple of yearsMD, David Fretwell

Culmination

David Fretwell told 4BR: "This is the culmination of a lot of hard work and effort put in by the band over the last couple of years. The band have done everything musically that I have asked of them and I would publicly like to say well done to everyone concerned."

The last time the band qualified for the Fourth Section National Finals was in 1960 although they went on to make subsequent appearances in 1961 and 1963 in the Third and Second Sections respectively.