h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, where do I start? Probably at the beginning...

Yesterday (Sunday) the Warwick Uni Brass Band played in the area finals of the National Brass Band Contest. In rehearsals, we knew that we should come in the top two. And the rehearsals all went pretty well.

But then yesterday came. Because of various contest rules about how many players each band can have, I wasn't actually playing - so I had to go and do the draw, to decide when we would play. We were drawn to play 13th - was it a sign of thngs to come?

While I'd been waiting for the draw, I'd been listening to some of the other bands. I thought they sounded good, but not as good as us (and I'm not just being big-headed here - there were things that I genuinly thought we did better). When we played, I went into the auditorium to watch.

The first note was absolutely superb - exactly the way the conductor had said he wanted it in rehearsals. But then we reached a solo. And the first note was a MAJOR split. (for those of you who don't know what I mean, basically it sounded c**p) And the same happenned with the next solo bit. And one of the solos could hardly be heard.

After the performance, the whole band was dismayed. Our conductor (who is normally pretty optimistic) thought we wouldn't have come any better than 3rd or 4th.

So we went in to listen to the results (which took ages to be announced). And of course, they had to do them in reverse order.

We didn't get fourth. We proceeded not to get third. We continued not to get second. At this point, we all really thought we had come something like 8th, since the band that came 2nd our conductor thought should have been much lower down. We were ready to leave.

But then they announced first place - AND IT WAS US!!!! So we are now the Midlands Area 3rd section Champions!!!!

And even better - it means that we go through to the NATIONAL FINALS, to be held in none other than the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Needless to say, there was much celebration. Plenty of drinkage, and quite a bit of spillage as well. But who cares - WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!!!

Oh WOW!!!!!!!!!