| aughintober, northern ireland

by Pipe Major Glenn Ferry

For a mildly turbulent season with a tasty finish add the following ingredients: -

• 6 concerts

• 1 broken elbow

• 1 hernia operation

• 1 new born baby

• 1 pregnancy

• 1 immigration to Canada

• 1 sabbatical from piping

• 60 years experience

• 5 parades

• 2 injured wrists

• 8 competitions

• 1 or 2 member fall outs

• 1 hard working secretary

• 12 hours on a bus

• 1 celebration dinner

• 1 set of tonsils removed

• 1 Ulster drumming champion

• 2 parties in Rathfriland

• 10 drummers

• 1 wedding

• 10 pipers

• 1 trip to china

• 1 cancelled trip to china

• 64 horses at the night at the races

• 1 new member

• 1 possible move to Australia

• 2 major championships

Add som disgruntled members (if you like), mix together with a good attitude, a smile and some nice music to ensure good quality.

The 13th is a generally fantastic day. YES everybody in the band moans about the parading (which we all secretly love, by the way), about sore feet, and about being tired - but all that, my friends is much MUCH better than being stuck in work on Scarva day, when you know everyone else in the band is out having fun without you!

With only my left-over BBQ at dinner time to look forward to, at 6.30am I arose, knowing that some band members were doing the same, except instead of my usual jeans and shirt work combo, they would be donning the battle colours of the mighty ABP (yes Glenn - it's music, not war but humour me for website pruposes!). So instead of setting off to Ahorey Hall to meet the fella's from the Lilly of the Valley (and to see if Turkey would survive this year), I headed for the Ulster Herald in Omagh to sit at my desk (as seen above) and drink coffee, thinking of the fond memories of our first year, spent in the Free-Presbyterian tent drinking tea, and sheltering ourselves from the rain!

So I shall leave it to Gail to tell you of the exploits of Scarva 2010...As for my Scarva 2010 - it was warm (then cold cause of the air-con), there was a lot of sitting down, and not nearly enough pipe bands!

On a side note - since the China Trip has been cancelled (for july anyway - cross your fingers and toes for October people!) the APB will in fact be attending Newcastle - so see us there!

New Brogues - a big day in the life of any Piper, Drummer, or Drum Major, for that matter. It generally can go two ways (as with much in this life). Either they're super-confortable, or cut the feet off you! Since there was no blood on Glenn's socks, I guess he got the good side of it! Although, with Brogues made out of used tyres, you'd hope they were comfortable!

So, with glenn in his (not so) shiney new shoes, and Ruth & Gail claiming 'Girl Power' in the back row (they actually did turn up dressed as the spice girls), we set off for Cookstown! Well, I didn't, cause I live in Cookstown and was unwilling to Travel to Aughintober, to Travel to Cookstown, to Travel to Aughintober, to Travel to Cookstown!

So once again, with the pipes singing (always happens on parade for some reason!) we sauntered out of the assembly field and onto the main street. For those of you unfamiliar with Cookstown, it's main street, is not only one of the widest, but also one of the longest in Ireland (coming in at around 1.25 miles), so it takes a fair bit of stamina to play the whole way! Thankfully for the band, Pipe Major Jason was no longer in charge, so it wasn't 3 6/8's followed by 3 Hornpipes, followed by dear knows what, leaving the band contemplating a military-style (bloodless, but none the less effective) coup. To PM Glenn Ferry it was, with plenty of breaks, plenty of chat, and a bit of craic to be had in there as well - we even got a few Drum Salutes which was a nice change!

Cookstown, being in the townland of Cookstown, in the District of Cookstown, in the County of Tyrone, in well, Northern Ireland (obviously) dosn't have many cows (on the main street anyway), so instead of our usual audience of Farmer Joe's Frezian Cattle (See http://www.aughintoberpipeband.com/apps/blog/show/3049318-the-tour-endith- if you've forgotten!), we were forced to play for human beings - the nice change being they react to your tunes! I certinly saw disappointment mixed with pride in my own mother's face as we marched past playing Jesus Loves Me! (This is a long running arguement with my mother, who dosn't think hymn tunes should be let loose near bagpipes - but perfers a nice hornpipe instead - go figure!), and my nephew Finn sound asleep!

Anyway - with the 'Girl Power' back row ready to collapse (that's right girls, the real athletes go in the front!), we reached the demonstration field (again, no cows, only people!) to relax, refresh and get ready for the return journey. I wasn't about (Uncle Duties), but from what I'm told, everyone re-stocked vital sugars at the Fosters van, and was super hyper for the return leg!

So once again everyone survived the 12th, and as for the 13th - we'll find out tomorrow! I'm stuck in work on the 13th (today), so once again we will be relying on the wit of Gail to report on the happenings of the day, and i'm told the Guest Writer might even pop in for a natter!

Happy 12th everyone!

That's right. Pictured above are our six aughintober ladies, just a few of the THOUSANDS of grieving women today, because that's right ladies and gentlemen - MELVIN FERRY IS MARRIED! As correctly predicted here yesterday, Melvin and Anna tied the knot around lunch time yesterday, and then strutted their stuff (well Anna did, Mel pretty much stood about talking!) around the dance floor!

So, with the APB wedding of the year (2010) not officially over, that begs the question - which bandsman will get married next?! Don't forget to vote in the new poll! (to your right!)

See u all on the 12th in Cookstown!

It's been a while since i've written, so thought it would be good to say we havn't gone away! Still right here, plugging away, preparing for the twelfth! The band has done two parades so far this year, firstly the highly anticipated 'Arch Parade', held every year in Castlecaulfield. This year was no exception, with the usual aray of bands adding to the specticle, and it even managed to not rain! (Brilliant, cause I forgot my Cape!).

Secondly was the Annual (We do a lot of annual this time of year) church parade out at Aughintober Hall. With Rob contemplating whether to get a new carpet, or dye the one he's already got, and the Ferry Fella's maybe just a 'little' worse for wear, on we sauntered, marching proudly and getting a few cheers from passing cows.

But the real reason i'm writing today, is because today is the day of the much anticipated wedding day of Mr. Melvin Ferry (Ex. Pipe Sergent, APB, who hasn't even so much as stuck his head around the door at band practice since he came home), and Ms. Anna Brunton!

On behalf of the Committe and Band (Well we'd like to hope, cause the Chairman is Mel's Da, and there's a lot of family in the band!), we would like to wish the very new (hopely by what, 2.00/3.00pm this afternoon) Mr. & Mrs. Ferry the very best for the future, and would like to be the first wo wish them a Very Merry Christmas & Happy, Prosperous New Year!).

In non-APB news, Willy managed to pick up the All-Ireland Championships with Uppercrossgare in 4b (Yes, Willy, M&D Too!), Clifford got Best Bass (And was 2nd) with Ballybriest, and myself managed to pick up 4th in 4a with Tullylagan (Who also won the Drums!)

As the sun goes down on another competition, the band had a wonderful day! The fact that the back of my hands are currenly sunburned (but not what bad thankfully), tells me that it was another lovely, sunny day, enjoyed by all!  Usually I have some far-fetched story of the day, which no-body believes, is usually true  AND turns out to be pretty funny (or so i'm told!). But, the contest being so close to home, there was no need for the 'MacNav', it didn't rain, and Glenn didn't forget his Kilt,  and Ryan even managed to finish work, come compete, and go back to work - wildly exctiing stuff.

Therefore the story of the day will have to be the results! Ontop of the band getting it's first result-proper (Band members et all should know what I mean by that), the band played relatively better than we did in Enniskillen (thank goodness!), and the drummers managed to come 2nd! A brilliant achievement for the drum corps, and we'd like to say a big WELL DONE! to them all!

In other news, Upper Crossgare came 3rd, well done Willy! AND this week the band had not only 1, but 2 birthdays! Happy birthday to both Mac and Vikki!

The day started off in good enough fashion - with a text from our newly-updated 'MacNav' tellin us all that there was plenty of traffic on the way into Enniskillen, so to be sure to leave plenty of time - that upgrade was really worth it! Not only do we get free travel information - but new traffic congestion updates, all for the low low price of a pint of beer!

Anyone who's ever been to the Fermanah contest will know that you can only expect one of 2 things - lots of sun, or lots of rain, and yesterday the latter certinly won out - huddled in our capes in the band Gazebo's the band started to work - good start, very clean, a wee bit of the B's and D's, but nothing to worry about. Drummers too were in good spirits, with their fancy new blue shells to show off...the band was looking good and sounding good, looking forward to the prospect of revealing our new Medley to the world in style.

Unfortunately for our bandsmen, things didn't go quite to plan. A poor performance in the ring left us downtrodden, and we still had to play for the Open Grade! At that point, the last thing anyone wanted to do was pick up their instruments, but with the urge to 'man up' everyone, to their eternal credit did their best, and the band went in and played a second time (and a bit better).

So, a throughly character-building excercise in Co. Fermanagh for the boys and girls of Team APB, coming 2nd in both grades, and winning the Bass Prize in both as well. But we will get up, dust ourselves off, put in the necessary work and hopefully make a better go of it next time - as they say, FMM wasn't built in a day.

On a brigher note, young Willy Laffin managed to pull off yet another win in G4B with the folks from UpperCrossgare, and Ryan came fourth!

We'd also like to say Congratulations to the Howard, who won both our grades.