Both the Pontardulais Town Band and Pontardulais Training Band competed at the 2019 West Wales Brass Band Association Contest on 5th October, held at Ysgol Maes y Gwendraeth in Cefneithin.

The Senior Band was awarded 2nd place in the First Section, performing ‘A King’s Lie’ by Stan Nieuwenhuis in this Own Choice contest, which was the second leg of the 2019 Welsh League series. For the third Welsh League contest in succession, principal cornet player Christopher Jenkins won the ‘Best Instrumentalist’ award.
The Training Band achieved a Gold Award on its return to the contesting stage, after performing a 10 minute selection of music. The set included ‘When I Grow Up’ by Tim Minchin arr. David Edmonds, featuring Aled Tumelty on Cornet, Dylan Fowles on Flugelhorn and Tom Fowles on Euphonium, ‘Kid Shifter’ by Simon Wyld – a tenor trombone solo performed by Evan Kinnear – and ‘African Funk’ by Alan Fernie. The Training Band also won the prizes for Best Performance and Best Section, which was awarded to the Percussion section.
Full results for both the First Section and Junior Section are below.
First Section
Position | Band | Piece | Draw |
1 | Burry Port Town Band (Ceri John) | Endeavour (Philip Sparke) | 2 |
2 | Pontardulais Town Band (Paul Jenkins) | A King’s Lie (Stan Nieuwenhuis) | 1 |
3 | Markham & District Band (Matt Rowe) | The Forest of Dean (Derek Bourgeois) | 3 |
Best instrumentalist: Christopher Jenkins – Cornet (Pontardulais Town Band)
Youth and Junior Section
Award | Band | Conductor |
Gold | Pontardulais Training Band | Kevin Shanklin |
Silver | Gwaun Cae Gurwen Junior Band | Dafydd Lewis |
Silver | Newport Borough Training Band | Hayley Gibbs |
Best section: Percussion – Pontardulais Training Band
Best performance: Pontardulais Training Band