The picture says it all. Skelmanthorpe B Band made it to the National Brass Championships in Cheltenham – and did their village and their county proud.

For the band finished second in the contest’s Section 3 and travelled home with a �750 cheque and some silverware.

And to add icing to the cake, the musicians were the highest-placed brass band from Yorkshire during the weekend out of all the Sections 1, 2, 3 and 4!

“ All of the B Band were extremely proud to represent the great county of Yorkshire, the town of Huddersfield and the village of Skelmanthorpe down at one of the most high-profiled brass band engagements of the year!” said a spokesman for the band.

And how they have worked for it.

Since the B Band qualified for the National Championships in March thanks to an impressive performance at the regional stage held in Bradford, the band has been hard at work raising the money to get them to Cheltenham.

As well as rehearsals, they’ve put their energies into raising the cash needed to get them and their musical instruments to Gloucestershire and enable them to stay for the weekend.

They shared a stage with top-line musician Dennis Rollins and ran a host of other events including a sponsored walk and a Grand Raffle as they and their supporters raised the money for the Road to Cheltenham fund.

“Down at the Centaur in Cheltenham we claimed second place within the championship’s third section, which is honestly a truly remarkable achievement for the entire band and all of our supporters especially, after fund-raising well over �7,500 to get the B Band down to Cheltenham for the weekend,” said the spokesman.

“The mood on stage was pretty relaxed and the players were in good spirits with just the right amount of nerves to keep them focussed on the job in hand,” he said.

Brass band website 4barsrest commented on the band’s performance.

“This was a very atmospheric reading from Philip Garlick. The drama and tension of what’s happening all came to the musical surface in a convincing way".

It also referred to “a persuasive close that just oozed music”.

Little wonder then that with a piece of silverware and that second place �750 winners’ cheque , the players were in high spirits on the journey home.

“As always, support for the band has been tremendous throughout the months leading up to the contest and on the day an army of devoted followers overwhelmed the band with their enthusiastic support,” said the band’s spokesman.

“The months of purposeful preparation are certainly worth the effort when the final result is so good.

“Not ones to be deterred by hard work the B Band is now looking forward to its promotion into the second Section and the challenges that may present,” he said.

We wish them well.