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Well, that's the World Pipe Band Championships over for another year. Congratulations to the newly crowned World Champions, Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band, for their outstanding performance. Though I am no expert, even I could hear that there was something special about their playing - every note sounded clear as a bell. Have a listen. Every Grade One performance is now available as a video on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Worlds website.

For three years now, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has been able to stream the Grade One contest live around the world. This year we added a live chat box to our coverage, and across the roughly 12 hours of the contest over 20,000 people signed into it. We had messages from as far afield as Turkmenistan, Borneo, an oil rig in the North Sea, a ship in the Gulf Of Mexico, from every corner of the United States, from Canada, Australia, Uruguay, Argentina, India, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy...

At times there were as many as 20 messages a minute coming in. As well as knowledgeable insights about the performances and predictions for the outcome, there were conversations with relatives from the other side of the world, stories about watching in big groups in bars, about police being called to investigate the early morning noise disturbance and then staying to watch.

For those in the Americas, the event starts in the middle of the night. So it takes dedication (and gallons of high grade coffee) to tune in to the morning qualifiers. As last year, we asked people to send us pictures of them watching - here's a wee selection.

Until next year!

Oh, and for the people in Sydney asking about our esteemed commentator Bob Worrall's tie...

Spectacular gentleman's attire from Bob

Atlanta contingent

Wacthing in a bar in Cleveland, Ohio

Chicago Highlanders in Palatine, Illinois