All the competitions I've competed in for solos.
1997 Heather Belles Grade IV 2/4 March | 3rd place (played Achaney Glen, judged by ALAN BEVAN) |
1997 MacAlester College Games Grade IV 2/4 March | 3rd place (long story, I thought I got 4th so I didn't go onto the finals in the round, and thence got last place [6th] for the 2 groups) |
1997 MacAlester College Games Novice Piobaireachd | 4th place (played Lament for Mary MacLeod) |
1997 Red River Exhibition Grade IV 2/4 March | ??? (4th I think, I beat the 6th place guy by about 5 points and lost the 3rd by 2.) |
1997 Red River Exhibition Novice Piobaireachd | 2nd Place |
1998 Heather Belles Grade III 2/4 March | 5th (played the Braes of Castle Grant) |
1998 Heather Belles Grade III S/R | 5th (played Susan MacLeod and Major David Manson. I forgot the last bar of my reel, and finished and swore loudly as I got off the stage, also my bass drone was roaring the entire event, and T. Ogilvy writes 'DAT BASS BE A ROARIN'!) |
1998 Heather Belles Jr. Piobaireachd | 4th (played the Glengarry's Lament |
1998 MacAleter College Games Grade III MSR | 2nd place. (played Braes of Castle Grant, Susan MacLeod and The Man from Glengarry. I can't believe I got second, the guy that played before me was amazing and I beat him by 1.5 points!) |
1998 MacAleter College Games Grade III HP/Jig | 4th place. (played Hiccup and The Glasgow city Police Pipers. The first time I ever got to play hornpipe/jig competition, and I did pretty well, I can't wait 'till next time) |
1998 MacAleter College Games Grade III Piobaireachd | 6th place. (played The Lament for the Old Sword. I tied 3 ways for 6th, there was 2 for 5th, 2 for 4th and 1 for each of the medals. I knew I'd take a beating here, I hadn't practiced that much, 3 flubs would do that) |
1998 Red River Exhibition Grade III 2/4 March | ??? Score of 72. (I played 'Braes' again for I. Evans |
1998 Red River Exhibition Grade III S/R | ??? Score of 67. (I played the same one as in MacAlester -- Susan MacLeod and The Man from Glengarry. I was judged by H. Wiens) |
1998 Red River Exhibition Jr. Piobaireachd | 4th place. (This I do know because I was one point behind my friend who placed 3rd. Played The Lament for the Old Sword for A. Gray!) |
1999 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III 2/4 March | Didn't place... (maybe I should have practiced more... but then again I knew this tune inside out and I was judged by that bastard Ian Evans! I played The Highland Wedding) |
1999 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III S/R | Didn't place (played the Lachine Rapids and the Man from Glengarry, I shone in the reel, the strathspey was weird. That should teach me to pick the weird ones. Judged by DAVE HICKS) |
1999 MacAlester College Games Grade III MSR | 5th (or 6th) place... (apparently out of 22 competitors that isn't too bad, but I was still upset. Again, I played Braes of Castle Grant/Susan MacLeod/The Man From Glengarry, judged by Mike Dietz[?]) |
2000 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III 2/4 March | Not sure... I got a 68 and 1st place got a 78, so I can't be that far off. (I played The Taking of Beaumont Hamel, judged by John Elliot. I was first to play at 8:30am!!!) |
2000 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III S/R | 5th place. (Hector MacLean and Captain Lachlan MacPhail of Tiree, for Ian Whitelaw. I couldn't keep my drones going and just before I went up and tried to tune they stopped again. He allowed me another 5 minutes to go and fix it. That's really decent!) |
2001 MacAlester College Games Grade III MSR | 7th (Braes of Castle Grant / Susan MacLeod / Alick C. MacGregor, for Tom Ogilvy, he said he really enjoyed my march. I was 3rd to play at 8:14am, that's too damn early! |
2002 MacAlester College Games Grade III MSR | 3rd place. The judge was really nice and I had a good cheering section - Steve still beat me though - got first place. (Mrs. MacDonald of Glenuig / The Caledonian Canal / Alick C. MacGregor, for Marlene Stephen) |
2002 MacAlester College Games Grade III HP/Jig | 7th place. This was the first time I've had a judge actually have a talk with me after the tune. (Hiccup / The Judge's Dilemna, for Gail Brown - got a nice picture of her looking like she was bored or something). |
2003 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III 2/4 March | Did not place (below 6th). I kinda thought I was gonna win something here. But I always take a beating in Winnipeg. Oh, well. (I Played The Knightswood Ceilidh and was judged by Ian MacDonald) |
2003 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III S/R | Did not place (below 6th). I knew I wasn't good here. My rhythm for this strathspey was just... off. So I expected to not place. (I played the Ewe wi' the Crookit Horn & Captain Lachlan MacPhail, and was judged by Colin McWilliams). |
2003 MacAlester College Games Grade III MSR | 4th place. There was a 1 point spread between the top 3 and then me... sheesh. If I only just fixed a few things... who knows? (I played Highland Wedding / The Caledonian Canal / Duntroon, and was judged by Marlene Stephen) |
2003 MacAlester College Games Grade III HP/Jig | 4th place (again). Again, missed by 1 point. (I played Hiccup / The Judge's Dilemna, and was judged by Gail Brown) |
2003 MooseJaw Games Grade III 2/4 March | Probably like 8th... hard to say. I guess it's not bad when there's like 16+ competitors. (I played Highland Wedding, and was judged by ?) |
2003 MooseJaw Games Grade III S/R | 7th. A kick in the egotistical nuts. (I played Caledonian Canal / Duntroon, and was judged by Jim MacGillivrary) |
2003 Regina Games Grade III 2/4 March | again, unsure.. probably 8th again. God it was cold, I almost just said "no, I won't play in this cold!" (I played Highland Wedding, and was judged by ?) |
2003 Regina Games Grade III S/R | unsure, (was 2 points behind Steve, who placed 5th). Had one of the funniest comments on this sheet. "why DO we emphasize closed Cs? Hmm... It's been a long morning and I think my brain is frozen!" (Caledonian Canal / Duntroon, for Danielle Millar) |
2003 Selkirk Games Grade III 2/4 March | 6th place. What really bugs me is that is was supposed to be a judge! She couldn't tell that I was playing a 6 parted march. She made only 1-4 part lines and didn't notice there was 2 more parts. Aggrevating. (Braes of Badenoch, for Leigh Ward) |
2003 Selkirk Games Grade III S/R | 5th place. Meh... not much I can say here. I guess if I practiced I'd have done better. Luckily Steve & Karen sorta swept this event. Steve ended up with Grand Aggregate for the day. (Susan MacLeod and The Man From Glengarry, for John Walsh) |
2003 Selkirk Games Grade III Quartet - Slow Air & 6/8 | First Place! It was pouring rain like crazy, and we got to play under this little pavillion with an aluminium roof and a concrete floor. We sounded like 12 pipers. Won $50 for it too. (David Adamson / Big Don MacDonald, for Colin Clancy(?)) |
2003 Winnipeg Beach Games Grade III 2/4 March | ??? I missed my 4th part, so I just continued on with the 5th & 6th. The judge didn't notice that I missed a part. (I played the Braes of Badenoch, and was judged by Ian Evans) |
2003 Winnipeg Beach Games Grade III S/R | 3rd. Had the same judge yesterday who didn't like the 'odd setting' for the reel, and I started playing another tune, and stopped, but he let me go on. (Susan MacLeod / The Man From Glengarry for John Walsh) |
2003 Winnipeg Beach Games Grade III Quartet | 2nd place. The other band replaced at least 2 people in the quartet, one of which was the JUDGE from the previous day. (Lord Lovat's Lament / Deputy Chief Wingate / Up to the Line / Big Don MacDonald, for John Walsh) |
2004 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III 2/4 March | 6th place. Maybe someday I'll get more spare time to practice. Also got a weird comment "piano error," whatever that means. (Colin Thompson for Bob Worrall) |
2004 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III S/R | 3rd place. Cool... a medal! Not bad, this is the one I'm usually weakest at, and play first, so it's usually the worst of my events. But I did okay! thanks (Susan MacLeod / the Man from Glengarry for Ian Evans) |
2004 Winnipeg Scottish Festival DUET | dnp - It was a first for both of us, and it sounded fun and then we realized, it's not a 'grade' event. (Bride's Jig / Rocking the Baby / the Radar Racketeer / Devil in the Staircase for Colin Clansey - "strong finish until the lovely open D @ end :)" ) |
2005 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III 2/4 March | 4th Place - I was much more confident about this one, but I think it's some sort of curse I have that I'll never make it out of Grade III. [I played Carradale Bay for Sean Somers] |
2005 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III S/R | 4th Place. My bass wouldn't start and I had a shot reed, that was really flat. I played and the 3rd F in the tune the reed collapsed which judge then asked "what happened to your F there?" [Captain Colin Campbell / Duntroon for Ian Conn] |
2006 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III 2/4 March | 6th Place - The judge didn't like my tune. It's a march, WTF. So I lost place because I choose something he didn't think was good for competition? [Carradale Bay for Iain MacDonald] |
2006 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III S/R | 5th Place. I think I played about the best I think I've ever played. Pete even said so. He didn't like the break I used between the tunes that Rory and I sorta came up with. [Captain Colin Campbell / Duntroon for Seam Somers |
2007 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III 2/4 March | 11th - The march was a little light, but most because I was worried about marching with it. ALL IN ALL, it was the WORST competition I've ever played.- [Arthur Bignold of Lochrusque for Peter Snaddon] |
2007 Winnipeg Scottish Festival Grade III S/R | ?? - My reed went for a shit the day of the competition (stupid prairie dryness). So my chanter sounded crap, and thin and it just kept spiralling me into a pretty bad ego spin, so it was just horrible. [Susan MacLeod / Man From Glengarry for Jake Watson] |
2009 MooseJaw Highland Festival Grade II MSR | 4th – I don’t know what possessed me to want to go up a grade. Wasn’t exactly fond of the tune the judge picked. Not much in the comments all around. [Leaving Glen Urquhart / Caledonian Canal / Alick C. McGregor for Stewart Smith] |
2009 MooseJaw Highland Festival Grade II HP/Jig | 1st – I swore very loudly when I saw that on the results. This was a great judge! He talked to me for a few minutes after playing, gave me some great pointers for the jig and how to do it even better. [Hiccup / Dale’s Chimichanga for Alex McIntyre] |
2009 Regina Highland Games Grade II MSR | 5th – He really paused when I mentioned the tunes for his choice… “Hmmm… both really good tunes”. He came up with some amazing comments that I really appreciated. [Braes of Castle Grant / Caledonian Canal / Alick C. McGregor for James MacHattie] |
2009 Regina Highland Games Grade II HP/Jig | breakdown - I played beautifully up until the repeat of the last part and couldn’t remember where I was so I stopped. And on the sheet he wrote down that I broke down at the end of the 2nd. [Hiccup and 87.5% of Dale’s Chimichanga for Stewart Smith] |
2011 Online Piping Competition Grade II HP/Jig | 6th place - A neat opportunity to record myself for a submission - except you turn into someone with OCD and do about 60 recordings and eventually just send in 'whatever'. It was really fun and the comments are good. [Hiccup / Dale's Chimichanga for Andrew Bonar] |
2011 Online Piping Competition Grade II MSR | ?th place - Really chopped me on this one. He picked out that my 7th bar phrase was wrong (I only added a doubling) and did NOT like my transition from the Strathspey to the Reel; he writes "some might say you didn't finish???" Ouch. [Braes of Castle Grant / Captain Colin Campbell / Alick C. MacGregor for Richard Hawke] |
2011 Online Piping Competition Grade II Piobaireachd | ?th place - Oi... 12 years since my last piobaireachd competition and that was for like novice level - having to step up to grade 2 was challenging. So was memorizing the tune - went back and forth on 2 different ones. I play a mean ground variation, but plug me into the rest and it makes me tired. Still enjoyed it. The comments were pretty accurate, no surprises. [Lament for Mary MacLeod for Peter Aumonier] |