Yes, it's true - you are not seeing things! The Winter Gardens area of Blackpool became very noisy for a while when the Marsden players and supporters started their celebrations on hearing the results of the Senior Cup section of the Spring Festival! The potential 'banana skin' of an early number four draw was avoided by really pulling out all the stops with a performance of Herbert Howell's 'Pageantry' that 4barsrest.com described as 'scorching'. To get a result off an early draw requires a very solid account and MD Glyn Williams told his players to make sure we were the best band in the first ten to play, this we did and some! Principal Cornet player Jason Evans was recognised for his great playing by being announced as the best soloist of the section. All the principal soloists throughout the band had a good day and we are lucky to have such great section leaders.

All the hard work that our players have put in clearly paid off, despite the disappointing result at Holmfirth contest, it became a faint memory and served as good preparation for the big one. The concert at St Bartholomew's, where the test piece was given another airing the week before, also gave the players a lot of confidence.

The band is now only one step away from appearing in the British Open, the Grand Shield awaits us next year and there are some fine bands to overcome. Then again, it was a great achievement to progress from the Senior Cup at the first attempt, so why not surprise people again in 2010? An appearance in the British Open may mean a change of conductor though - Glyn would be playing against us with Fodens!

The band is now looking forward to Whit Friday on June 5th where we will be looking to pick up several trophies to sit alongside The Senior Cup and swell the coffers by a few hundred pounds as well! This will see a conductor change though, Glyn's commitments as Solo Euphonium of Fodens mean that the legendary Richard Evans will be leading our players in the evening contests. 'Dick The Stick' has a good record on Whit Friday and lets hope some of his magic rubs off on us to continue our winning ways!