The significance of Friary’s performance at Butlins last month was demonstrated clearly with the publication of the February World Rankings. Boosted by the fourth place in the prestigious entertainment contest, Friary has risen 11 places to 27th, an all time high for the Band.
‘If you look at the names above Friary in the rankings, they are almost all the household names of the banding world,’ said Band Chairman, Nigel Stevens. ‘It will be a challenge to maintain our place, but our main focus currently is to retain our Regional Champions title at Stevenage next month and ensure we qualify again for the National Championships,’ he added.
Interestingly, we recently happened upon an old rankings table dating back to July 2010, shortly before Friary won the First Section National Title. The Band was then ranked 118th with their points tally less than a tenth of what it is now. That’s quite remarkable progress over six years or so. Who knows what the next six years might bring …