Give it some oompah!

BOARSHURST BAND: cup chance

Silver band goes for gold in final
A SADDLEWORTH brass band is hoping dreams of national success come true this weekend as they take on their toughest challenge yet.

Greenfield’s Boarshurst Silver Band heads to the final of National Brass Band Championships in Cheltenham on Saturday in the hope of clinching the title.

Going head to head with 20 bands from across Great Britain, players have set their hopes high. After success at the North-West finals earlier this year and months of rehearsing, musical director David Ashworth hopes their rendition of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Overture “Henry the Fifth” will be a winner.

He said: “It’s been a lot of hard work. We’ve built the team up over three years, they’ve stuck together and they are incredibly hard workers.

“We don’t go anywhere to come second. You’ve got to hope to win and I strongly feel that we’re good enough — it would be terrific.”

The journey to compete in the fourth section finals comes after a hard slog to raise £8,000 to make it happen.

Dozens of fundraising events from duck races to concerts across the north have helped reach the target.

David said this would have been impossible without the dedication from band members and hard graft from Boarshurst band manager Janet Payne and Linda Finan.

A total of 45 will board the coach on Saturday to make their slot at the famous Cheltenham race course in the afternoon, for what promises to be a knockout performance.

David, who last clinched a national title with Oldham Brass 97 band in 2000, said: “We’re due a win, each and every person has put so much effort in.”