It was a very successful day for Seindorf Beaumaris at the Welsh Regional Brass Band Championships in Wrexham on Sunday as the band finished second overall and clinched their place at the National Finals in Cheltenham in September.
Having returned to contesting for the first time in six years, Beaumaris, under the baton of Scott Lloyd, produced a rousing performance of the Test Piece, Stantonbury Festival by Ray Steadman-Allen.
With 19 of the band's 26 players playing in the Area Contest for the very first time and with 15 of those players being under the age of 18, it was a very different Seindorf Beaumaris to the one which had graced the stage of the Royal Albert Hall in 2013.
The reaction of the gathered Brass Band press was incredibly complimentary with Brass Band World Magazine describing the performance as "engaging (with) excellent balanced sound and a thrilling style".
The 4BarsRest website even went so far as to describe the band's performance of Stantonbury Festival as "the best Fourth Section rendition of the piece the Editor has heard this year."
However, as with all Brass Band contests, the only opinion that matters is that of the adjudicators in the box and Sarah Groarke-Booth and Sheona Wade placed the band in second place behind Gwaun Cae Gurwen.
Beaumaris now prepare for their first ever visit to the National Championship of Great Britain Fourth Section Finals since the Beaumaris B Band, under the baton of Fred Evans, became Fourth Section Champions of Great Britain in the Royal Albert Hall in 2000.