It shouldn’t really have been a shock, but when the Shotts and Dykehead Caledonia marched, drummed and skirled their way to being declared the world’s best pipe band, it was the first time a Scottish band had won the title since 2005.
The band from North Lanarkshire triumphed after the two-day World Pipe Band Championships, known as the Worlds, in Glasgow over the weekend.
The competition attracted about 8,000 musicians in 230 bands, from 16 nations including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Oman and, for the first time, Malaysia and Austria, watched by 40,000 spectators. The competition is the culmination of the week-long Piping Live festival which includes Highland games and dancing.
Despite the 10-year hiatus since they last took the title, the Shotts and Dykehead Caledonia have lifted the trophy on many previous occasions. The band started very modestly in 1910, founded by Pipe Major Dugald MacFarlane and rehearsing initially in the tiny kitchen of his miner’s cottage. The band first took a world title in 1948; from 1957, it won for four years in a row.
Iam Embelton, chief executive of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association, said the competition had attracted the most talented pipers and drummers in the world. “It is always hard to imagine just how much better the bands and the event can get but this year’s World Pipe Band Championships have been outstanding.”
Second place went to the St Laurence O’Toole Pipe Band from Ireland.
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