The morning of Sunday 05/02/12 saw the band struggling through the snow for their first contest performance of 2012 and first contest performance as a nationally graded third section band. This new grading mean the band, for the first time, were not up with the cockerel with rehearsal starting at the unusually late time of 10.30am. Following a short rehearsal the band made the trip, again battling snowy conditions, to the Preston Guild Hall.
Drawn Number 8 in a strong field of 11 bands the band on this occasion had chosen to play the work that has been set as the test for all third section bands at this year’ regional contests, Olympus by Philip Harper.As the band took to the stage everyone settled themselves ready to give their performance. The band gave a solid account of this challenging work and everyone was pleased with the performance given and then just had the short wait to hear from the days adjudicator Stephen Brodie.
Come the announcement of results Stephen Broadie came to the stage and gave a very concise review of the day’s events. He explained that the day had been a great contest, with all MD’s choosing suitable test pieces to showcase their abilities, as usual it was the bands that got the basics right that would be in the prizes. Mr Broadie explained that the three “placed” bands were those who took just those extra little risks to bring out the music of their performance. The results announced were:

1.      Blackpool Brass T.Ahmed
2.      Trinity Girls S. Broadie
3.      Besses Boys Band J. Holt
Best Soloist: Solo Euphonium Trinity Girls.

Speaking after the announcement of results MD James Holt commented.
This result represents a great return for the hard work thnd has put in over recent times. It was always going to be a big challenge moving up a section coming up against established third section bands. We have performed very well today, there will never be a perfect performance though we know where we have slipped up today and we can work on that and only become better for the experience. I am extremely proud of the band, today they have performance very well and received their reward, we know turn our focus to the Area contest in three weeks’ time where we hope to be able to improve on today’s performance.