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NEWS Biggest Ever Annual Parade for POTHUpdated 09 February 2010 05:19:03 PM by Simon. As ever, the second Friday of June meant that it was our own turn to host our annual parade in Rathfriland.Although I was away due to work commitments, I was getting regular text updates from Rathfriland on how the parade was going, In the previous few years we have been very lucky weather wise with good warm dry nights and this year was to stay dry with the sun out. As ever we headed the parade with only a few members unable to turn out(myself being one of the very few guilty parties!) It was biggest ever band we’ve paraded Rathfriland with 9 in the colour party, 3 drum majors, 19 drummers and 41 flutes. I’ve watched some of the clips from YouTube of the band coming through the Square and I thought we looked awesome from front to back. BandsandGroups.com have three great clips of us parading the town here. As in previous years, some bands were doing both our own parade and Dunamoney and were parading shortly after we had started. Ballyrea Boyne Defenders, Sons of Ulster Shankill were the bands who took this approach. It’s always good to see new bands parading the town for our parade and this year we had several bands coming to 'The Hill' for the first time, Pomeroy True Blues were one of these bands. When I spoke to one of their senior members last week he had to ask for directions as he’d never ever been to Rathfriland before. Needless to say he was advised to try conserve his energy for the big hill at the end! Other bands who were attending for the first time included Gortagilly and Tamlaghtmore Tigers. There were also a few Auld Boy bands out with Clogher Auld Boys parading Rathfriland for the first time. The local bands were also out in force with Legananny Accordion joining Aughlisnafin, Lisnamulligan Pipe Band and Drumlough Highland Pipe Band on parade. Our average turnout over the past few years has been in and around the 50 mark and this years turnout was excellent, with 60 bands taking to the street to make it our biggest parade to date. The flow of bands throughout the parade was much improved compared to previous years. This is something which we looked at a few years ago and made a few changes such as additional parking and asking the police to reroute traffic where possible to prevent cars coming through the town. Having spoken to some of the judges I was told that the standard was high in all categories and it was a tough night to judge. As usual we had a mixture of independent judges along with members of our own band who had the task of doing this. By all accounts Skeogh were sounding excellent in the melody section and this was backed up by both drumming judges who both had them placed first in the Melody Drum Corp section. The Big Guns in the B&T section were all out in full force with East Belfast PB, Drumderg, Clogher and Kilcluney all putting in good performances. Some of the smaller bands also impressed with good comments being made about Gortagilly and Pride of the Shore. South Down Defenders, Newry also impressed the judges taking home best Small Blood & Thunder Drum Corps. Before the results were read out, a minutes silence was held after news filtered through of a plane crash in Kilkeel in which several bandsmen from the area lost family members. Once again we’d like to thank all bands, spectators and the local people of Rathfriland for their support this year. We will endeavour to support all bands who supported us in the coming year and we’ll hopefully see you all in Rathfriland in 2010. No Surrender. Below is the full list of bands and results from the parade. Results Junior Drum Major 1. Downshire GS 2. Lisburn YD 3. Lisnamulligan pipe Senior Drum Major 1. Mourne YD 2. Skeogh 3. Pride Of Ballinran B & T Drum Major 1. Pride Of the Hill Auld Boys 2. Clogher PB 3. Kilcluney Vol. Pipe Band Drum Corp 1. Lisnamulligan 2. Drumlough Best Pipe Band 1. Lisnamulligan 2. Drumlough Best Accordian 1. Brunswick 2. Legananny 3. Aughlisnafin Colour Party 1. East Belfast PB 2.Clogher PB 3. Kilcluney Vol Marching and Discipline 1. East Belfast PB 2. Brunswick acc 3. Skeogh Style and Appearance 1. Pride Of Knockmore 2. Drumderg Loyalists 3. East Belfast PB Bass Drum 1. East Belfast PB 2. Kilcluney Vol 3. Clogher PB Melody Drum Corp. 1. Skeogh 2. Mourne YD / Pride of Ballinran 3. Fife and Drum Shore Road Small Blood Drum Corp. 1. South Down Def. Newry 2. Lambeg O&B 3. Craigavon PB Large Blood Drum Corp. 1. Drumderg LK 2. Clogher PB 3. East Belfast / Portadown Def. Melody 1. Ballinran 2. Mourne YD 3. Fife and Drum Shore Road Small Blood & Thunder 1. Pride Of the Shore 2. Lambeg O&B 3. Bessbrook TB Large Blood & Thunder 1. East Belfast PB 2. Kilcluney Vol 3. Clogher PB Best Overall 1. East Belfast PB 2. Clogher PB 3. Pride Of Ballinran List of bands
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