HATHERLEIGH Silver Band is celebrating after making it through to the finals of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain — for only the second time in the band's history.

Competing against 20 other bands in their section of the regional finals, held at the Riviera Centre in Torquay, the Hatherleigh musicians pulled out all the stops with their rendition of Saint-Saens Variations by Philip Sparke, to scoop one of the three coveted places at the finals.

Robin Wonnacott, musical director of the band, said he was absolutely delighted with the result.

'We are really very thrilled, it's fantastic, for a little town band like Hatherleigh's, to have done so well,' said Robin.

'It's especially gratifying, because a lot of bands will bring in players to help them on the day, but we didn't, this was just us, and we are absolutely delighted.

'We've got to the finals once before, in 1994, when they were held in Wembley, and I think then I described it as a probably once in a lifetime achievement, but we've done it again!'

Hatherleigh Silver Band has 25 brass players and two percussionists — with a healthy number of young, teenaged players.

Robin said: 'We are very fortunate, we have several excellent young members and this is a really fantastic achievement for the youngsters particularly.'

He said while the competition was taking place, the band did not really know how good the opposition was, as they were doing some last minute rehearsing of their own.

The judges listen to each performance from a closed area and do not see the band they are judging, they only listen to their music.

Hatherleigh was the 16th band to play.

Robin said: 'We've put about 800 man hours into playing for a 12-minute piece, but we were very pleased with our performance when we came off the stage.

'We felt we had played it as well as we were ever likely to — we peaked just at the right time!'

The band now has to think about their big day in September, when the finals are held in Harrogate.

'We reckon it's going to cost about £6,000 to get us all up there, with coach and overnight accommodation, so we shall be doing a lot of fundraising I think,' said Robin.