LAUNCESTON Town Band held its annual awards evening at Eagle House Hotel on Saturday.

Mayor Cllr Brian Hogan, in proposing the toast to the band, thanked them for playing regularly in the town and at important functions like the carnival and Remembrance Sunday. Further afield they were great ambassadors for the town, he said.

Band president John Ware said the band appreciated the strong support it received from the town council and from individual councillors. The mayor had given the band a mayor’s booking for the town hall for the charity community concert in December.

Cllr Paul O’Brien had held another garden party in aid of the band in June and the band had also received another substantial sum as one of retiring mayor Dave Gordon’s chosen charities. The town council had paid for half the cost of the new lighting outside the bandroom and the then Cllr Alex Folkes had made up the other half from his county council community chest.

John presented the trophies for the training band. Ann Brown, MD of the training band, awarded the Ian Rattray Trophy for the most promising training band member to Henry Bye and the John Ware Shield for the training band player of the year to Charlotte Barker. John also presented certificates from Trinity College to William and Mary Manzi, who had both passed their exams with merit following tuition from Ann.

The mayor then presented the awards for the senior band. Colin Gay awarded Walter Tucker the Gordon Hodge Trophy for the junior member, playing or non-playing, contributing most to the senior band. Walter was also voted by senior members the players’ player. His cousin William Tucker was awarded the President’s Shield as bandsman of the year for designing and running a new website.

Colin awarded William Neale the Plestin-les-Greves Cup for the youngster showing most commitment and good attendance. The Conductor’s Baton for the junior member making most improvement was awarded to Mary Manzi while Colin awarded the Eric Tiplady Cup for the junior player of the year to Jade Levis.

He chose Lisa Dymond as the senior player contributing most to the band and the winner of the Dobson Cup and Steve Brown was awarded the Chairman’s Shield for player of the year.

The trophies and engraving were sponsored by Peters Langsford Davies.

After individual and group photos of the winners the enjoyable and successful evening continued with games organised by Jeanette Neale and Lisa Dymond, the most interesting being a challenge to make musical instruments out of an assortment of cardboard boxes, plastic bottles and other junk and then to play them. A panel of experts — Colin Gay and Dave Gordon — chose a group with Rob Tucker on didgeridoo as winners.

The night concluded with dancing and karaoke by discoman Chris Brown, the highlight of which was singing by the mayoress.