The band was delighted to achieve 4th place at the 2008 English Nationals at The Guild Hall, Preston on 28 June. Having been drawn between 2 of the pre-contest favourites - after Grimethorpe and before Fodens Richardson - the band put on a great performance which caught the ears of the adjudicators.

The very beneficial segment pre-draw meant that the band members already knew that they would play in the second half of the competition. In the event, the band was drawn to play 9th out of the 15 strong field.

In the morning some of the band went to listen to the first few bands perform the new testpiece, Infinity by Robert Redhead, whilst others relaxed at the hotel before Andy Duncan rehearsed the band at noon.

The draw was phoned through at about 12:15 and it excited the band - indeed the band aspires to compete at this level against the best bands.

After a good practice the band made the short walk from the hotel to the venue. The organisation at the contest is excellent and the band had the opportunity of a warm up in a small theatre before heading along the corridor to the main hall.

Having heard the crowd going wild at the end of Grimethorpe's performance, the band took to the stage at about 2:30 pm. Particular praise must go to the 2 main soloists in the piece - Jon Small on Soprano and Clair Tomalin on Flugel - both of whom performed excellently setting up what the band felt at the time was as good a performance as we had done in the build up to the contest.

It proved popular with the audience as well with Andy Duncan and the players receiving numerous plaudits before the results.

Some of the players attended the results but most arrived late and after the band's result had been announced. Chairman, Derek Thomas, was on stage to receive the trophy and managed to send out text messages to some of the players about the result. Most couldn't quite believe it but when Derek held the trophy aloft everyone could then believe that we had achieved a fantastic result in such difficult company.

Andy Duncan was naturally delighted but felt the band had worked extremely hard in the build up to the contest and was playing well enough to achieve a good result. The end result was perhaps more than he had hoped for but he was pleased with the performance and was hopeful of a good result.

Prior to the contest, the band had made the decision to travel back through the night after the results had been announced but were able to have a swift celebratory drink back at the hotel before heading back to Cornwall. Arriving back at the Eden Project at 2:30 am, the band members were tired but delighted at the end of a hard few weeks' preparation.

The band wishes to extend its thanks to Clair Tomalin for playing at short notice and for Kelvin Retallack of St Keverne Band playing in the absence of Andrew Jay who is on a temporary break from the band.

The band will be arranging a night out to celebrate and further details will appear on the website about that in due course.