Saturday 17th June
Vintage Tractor & Car Rally 

Pipers: Alex, Miranda, Keith G, David, John, Donny
Drummers: Snare – Tom G; Tenor – Fred, Vic, Beth; Bass – Keith I, Sue

It was glorious weather on Saturday with blue skies and a blazing sun.  Spirits were high for the six pipers and five drummers as they had a tune up around 09.30 hours in the field car park. They were joined later by Keith Ives, Bass drummer. The dress code was day dress with Glengarries. The adjoining fields were already filling up with vintage and modern farming machinery, lorries, Land Rovers, cars and JCBs, and tractors of every type and colour (but were mainly blue).

There was a large refreshment tent and ice cream seller and fast food and drink outlet. An Auction was to take place later in the lower field of a miscellaneous nature which included lots from small machinery parts to a garden bench and flowers and plants. There was a variety of entertainment on the day’s programme, including a dog shows and dog agility courses and meanwhile a vintage organ played lively classical music. There were also numerous stalls of every description dotted around the fields.

For the first slot at 10.30 the band made their way to the arena where they marched in and formed a circle playing for half an hour which was very well appreciated by the audience sitting on the hay bales around the outside. There was then a two hour break while the numerous dog agility courses were taking place and other events. Whilst the Band were on their refreshment break, Caroline, Chris Dowrick’s sister, came over to thank everybody for attending and playing.

At 12.30 the members met outside the large marquee ready to take their place in the arena but someone had their timing wrong as the JCBs were still in the ring. The Band then started to play opposite the arena until they were kindly requested to move on as someone’s cat was traumatized by the pipes. They were happy to oblige and played for half an hour elsewhere.

Tunes played during the morning included the following – Amazing Grace, Highland Cathedral, Green Hills/Battles O’er, Scotland the Brave/Rowan Tree/Wings/Bonny Galloway, Scotland the Brave/Mairi’s Wedding, Colin’s Cattle/Shoals of Herring, Waters of Kylesku/Skye Boat/Morag of Dunvegan, Cockney Jocks/Rainbow Country, and Bluebells of Scotland.

It had been an enjoyable morning and as usual the Band played well to the locals and visitors around the grounds. What they had lacked a little in numbers was more than made up by the quality of the music. And the weather had been outstanding!