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THE ROUND TABLE -- ARCHIVE, 2004
July 19, 2005
The second contest of the year wasn't, technically, a contest. Well,
sure, there was a competition going on... we just weren't involved. Well, we
were involved... but we weren't competing. Unfortunately, we only had one
snare drummer for the Rockland Feis this past Sunday, so the band was
playing for score sheets only. Despite the rain and flooding, we went
through the paces of our day as if we were eligible to qualify for the
competition. The band played well without three of our newer performers. The
contest itself was probably the largest one we'll see this year, with 18
bands registered to compete in Grade V. With scratches and
disqualifications, 13 total bands were in the contest. It would have been
tough coming in the money with a group that large, but playing the way we
have been, anything could have happened.
With Hunter Mountain coming on August 21, we'll continue to practice and
(hopefully) improve over the next few weeks. See you in a month.
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July 5, 2005
We made it to our first contest in good shape, and came away with our
first victory of the season! The Round Hill Highland Games was this past
Saturday, July 2. The grade 5 contest consisted of 3 bands, and the judges
determined that the ACPB was the best of the day. Our pipe corps swept the
contest with 2 firsts, and the ensemble performance resulted in a 2nd place.
The newly structured drum corps came away with third, and their performance
was better than anyone could have hoped for. With Tim Delaney working hard
to get Chris Ryan up to speed over the past 3 weeks, the judge's comments
were more reflective of a 3rd place finish than a last place finish - so
there's a lot to build on there. Congratulations to Chris on picking up the
drum for the first time in over 10 years. Chris wasn't the only new drummer
to compete at Round Hill. Roger Elliot did an outstanding job on the skins,
playing his first competition on Bass Drum ever. With Jan Meehan solidifying
the rhythm section on Tenor, the entire drum corps did an outstanding job.
The first place pipe corps also had a new performer. Making his first
appearance on the contest field, band member of the year James Elliot
measured up to expectations and added strength to the pipe section.
Congratulations to all of our new players, and congrats to everyone involved
in getting the band back out on the competition circuit! View some photos
from the contest below...
   
   
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April 18, 2005
The band continues to gear up for the 2005 summer season. Last month, we
hired Scott Gajdos on as the piping instructor, replacing Frank Riggio.
Frank has always been an outstanding resource for the band, and played an
integral part in the development of many of our pipers. We would like to
thank Frank for all of his hard work and dedication, and wish him well in
future piping efforts. Frank will always be tied to our group in some way,
and he’ll always be considered part of the family.
We also say goodbye (at least temporarily) to Dick Hanley as our tenor
drum instructor. Dick has done some wonderful work with the tenor drummers,
and we look forward to having that hard work pay off in the contest circle.
I’m sure we’ll be seeing you again soon Dick (and Cutch misses you)…
Scott’s work so far has been amazing. We’ve begun to tackle a number of
new tunes, and it appears (fingers crossed) that we’ll be out in the contest
circuit in 2005. The pipe corps has been working extremely hard on the new
tunes and it can be entirely tied to Scott’s influence. We’ve also been able
to coerce one of our previous/inactive members to make the trip out from the
big city for Wednesday night practices. Sean Meehan has been a consistent
participant at the chanter table since March, and – schedule permitting – we
look forward to having him back in the fold for 2005. We’ve also had a new
addition to the pipe corps. With the influence of new piping student Tom
McCarthy, Mike McMullin has decided to dust of the pipes and join our band
of merry men and women. Mike comes to us from Tara Pipe Band, where he last
played over 3 years ago.
On the drumming front, Lucille Weidner announced her retirement as Drum
Sergeant effective at the end of March. Lucille had held this role for over
a decade, and played a large part in holding our drum corps together over
those years. She’ll maintain her role as a side drummer, but hands the
leadership reins over to Tim Delaney. An accomplished grade 2 soloist, Tim
will rely on his 11 years of pipe band drumming to bring the drum corps back
into the competition circle.
A couple of notes since the last round table entry …
it’s been a while. Congratulations to Roger and James Elliot on being
awarded Band Members of the Year. It may seem (by virtue of their last name)
that this was an award given to both, they in fact tied in voting results.
Both have had a tremendous impact on the group. Roger has picked up the bass
drumming duties full time to add some stability to that area of the band,
and James has come a very long way in a very short time to become one of the
top bagpipers in the band. Great job guys.
Roger apparently felt it was necessary to celebrate his
BMOTY nod by sharing some high spirits with the band on the bus ride back
from the Montauk St. Patrick’s Day parade. We thank you, and Damien thanks
you.
The city parade ended at noon. The bus got back to exit
49 at 11:00pm. That just can’t be good. It seems as though the band is
having more fun after the city parade than they do during it… who needs a
schedule? The bus will leave when we’ve all had our fill, right?
The Piper’s Ball next year will celebrate our 35th
anniversary. Noreen O’Callaghan will take the lead for this event, spelling
Tom Etter after 3 years of hard work and dedication. Good luck Noreen.
We've added some member bios to the Roster page, so if
you want to learn more about our players, feel free to take a look. Keep
coming back to learn more about the goings-on with the ACPB.
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Round Table Archive
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