Two Grade 1 pipe bands - both of which have strong ties to the Tri-Cities - will be in Scotland next week to prepare for the world championships that start on Aug. 15.
The Port Coquitlam-based Dowco Triumph Street Band placed 10th at Glasgow Green last year while the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band took the fourth spot, following first-place winners Field Marshal Montgomery (North Ireland), Boghall and Bathgate (Scotland) and Scottish Power (Scotland).
But this year will see a big change at the top for the SFU pipe band, with the retirement last fall of founding pipe major - and Coquitlam resident - Terry Lee.
Senior piper Alan Bevan will be leading the SFU pipe band at the Worlds, a competition where Lee helped the ensemble clinch six first-place finishes and nine second-place titles over his 30 years at the helm.
A band member since 1995, Bevan, 37, from Abbotsford, has been to 18 Worlds - five of which the SFU band won first place.
"I'm feeling good about my first Worlds as pipe major," Bevan said in a news release. "We're playing stronger than ever and I think the band is eager to show off all the hard work we've been putting in."
Joining the Grade 1 band will be SFU's junior Robert Malcolm Memorial band. The juvenile Grade 4 band includes Bevan's 11-year-old son Alistair (Bevan's wife, Bonnie, is also a piper with the Grade 1 SFU ensemble).
Among the Grade 1 pipers from the Tri-Cities who will be competing are: Alastair Lee, Danielle Millar and Daryl Techy; drummers Reid Maxwell, Gavin MacRae and Duncan Millar; bass section Kim Mercado and MacKenzie Webster; and administrator Rob MacNeil, who also instructs the RMM pipe bands.
Meanwhile, Dowco pipe major David Hilder said his band got a boost in confidence last month when it beat the SFUPB twice at the Seattle Highland Games - the first time the SFU group has lost top prizes at the Washington State event in 20 years.
At the Games, the last competition before the Worlds, Dowco clinched two firsts in piping and in ensemble. "It's a testament to this region that we have such high-quality pipe bands," Hilder said.
Besides Hilder, his pipe sergeant wife, Shaunna, and their son, Liam, the other Dowco players from the Tri-Cities are: Gordon McRae, Fraser Yorston, Alex Galloway, Cameron Reid, Jessica Reid, Scott Wood, Tyler Wood, Jocelyn Marsh and Shelena Marsh.
