Pipe Band drums up historic win

The New Zealand Police Pipe Band took top honours at the national pipe band championships in Dunedin on 10 March, and won strong favour with the enthusiastic crowd.

Mock offender, South Dunedin Dog Section Supervisor Sergeant Trevor Bolt,
steals the Drum Major’s mace.

The Band competed in the street march with 21 pipers and 12 drummers.

“Winning the Grade One champions title back again gave the Band a huge buzz,” says Drum Major, Superintendent Hamish McCardle.

“The band last held the title in 1999 and has been chasing hard to regain it for the past few seasons. Many months of hard yakka went into preparing the band for its winning performances.” 

Anyone who visited the Royal New Zealand Police College in the weekends leading up to the contest would have seen the band practicing in the heat to make things perfect for the national champs.

This year’s contest was all the more special as it marked the 100th pipe bands championship. The first ever contest was held in Dunedin in 1907.

“The local support for police was amazing, and it felt like we were being carried down the street by the crowd,” says Hamish. 

The band also won the display event where members of the Southern Dog Section put on a great show for the large crowd with the band playing in the background. 

Strong public support for police and the band was evident by a great round of applause at the end of the display with the commentator summing it up on the public address system by saying, “let’s hear it for the police, after all we need our police, where would we be without them?”.

The band won the music events playing several compositions penned by its own members.

One tune in particular drew high praise. Entitled ‘The New Recruits’, the piece reflects the large number of new police faces the band sees at its practice weekends at the RNZPC.