The band travelled to Blackpool Winter Gardens on the 1st March to compete in the North West Area Regional Championship 4th Section. The day began at 9:30am for a rehearsal at the Duke of York pub. The first half of the rehearsal went well enough for our stand-in conductor, Aidan Howgate, to allow us to break for bacon sandwiches kindly prepared for us by the licencees. After eating our breakfast we completed the rest of the rehearsal before making our way to the Winter Gardens for registration. We were drawn to play 5th out of a field of 14 other bands and we eventually went on to play in the magnificent Empress Ballroom at approximately 4pm.

The piece we played was An English Pastorale by Dean Jones and it seemed to fly by on stage, as such performances always do. The band were invariably pleased with the performance and excited to find out where we had placed. With another 9 bands still to play we had enough time to grab a bite to eat and return to the ball room for the final performances and results. After a lengthy deliberation the adjudicators placed Rode Hall a very respectable 6th overall, high enough to receive one of the trophies presented by Fanfare North.

Full results from the 4th Section: