Setting off from Cornwall at 8.30am on a rainy Friday morning, the band were heading for Blackpool for their tenth appearance at the Grand Shield.

This contest is widely known as the most difficult to win, with most of the bands competing in with a chance of grabbing the trophy!

The aim, being one of the top two spots, to qualify for the British Open the band had prepared well and were looking forward to putting in another good performance at the Winter Gardens on Saturday.

The long journey north, certainly was long, but arriving at the hotel by 6.30pm was a welcome sight, if nothing more than to get off the coach!

The band had a rehearsal in the evening, before all going off for the meal arranged by Terry Sleeman at a local Italian restaurant.

An early night, allowed us all to catch up on our sleep before the contest day arrived.

The band were to play 8th in a field of 19, which we were all happy with and after a morning warm up, we travelled back to the hotel to get ready.

We took the stage at 12.45 and delivered what we thought was a good show. The soloists played great, well done to Tim, Martin, Sarah, Shaun, Terry, Raf and Jon and we were very pleased with the overall band performance.

At the results, the band were awarded third place, which was tantalisingly close to getting into the Open, but nevertheless a great result against such a high quality field.

The band set off from Blackpool, later that evening getting back home at 4.30am.

Many thanks to all our supporters who travelled with us and to all the people that passed on their kind comments about our performance and result!

Blackpool is in the diary again for next year, when we hope we can go one better!