The following judges have been selected:

Kathleen O’Donnell               Scotland

Cecilia Orr                                Scotland

Leigh-Ann Plenderleith      Scotland

Susan Robertson                   Scotland

Victor Wesley                       Scotland

Jeannette Shearer              Scotland

Marion Clow                         Scotland

Mary Munro                        Canada

Michele Young                   Canada

Sharon Farrar                     USA

Cheryl Kirby                        USA

Fiona Borcherds                Australia

The Board of Directors at Cowal would like to thank the UKA, BATD, SDTA, ScotDance Canada, FUSTA, ABHD, OBHD(SA), and SDNZ for their input to the selection process.

We would further like to confirm that the draw has now taken place for the championships to be help at Cowal this year. We would like to thank The Chairman of the SOBHD, Miss Christine Lacey, who was in attendance when the draw was made.

Cowal Gathering openly welcomes feedback on all aspects of the Highland Dancing Competition. A recent example, raised by judges and competitors a few years ago, was to investigate what could be done to split the large Junior and Senior heats into smaller sizes.

In 2007 we split the heats into 2 sections, A and B. The dancers that made up each heat were randomly selected. Unfortunately, this randomness can result in one heat being of a slightly higher standard than the other one, meaning that it may be more difficult to qualify for some dancers depending on their heat selection.

Following feedback and in an effort to ensure fairness we have changed the heat selection process as follows:
All dancers in Junior and Senior qualifying events have been sorted according their competitive championship record in the last 12 months. Heats A and B have been created based on this scoring ensuring that both heats contain an equal quality and quantity of dancers. The dancer order within the heats was then randomised.

To ensure the process is fair and not subjective this exercise has been completed based purely on the result data held at the SOBHD without individual preference.

We would like to thank the SOBHD for their input into the process.

Competitor numbers for the highland dancers will be sent out in late July along with their passes.

Draw lists and competitor passes will also be sent to all solo piping competitors at the end of July.

Thank you for entering and good luck in your chosen events.

Visit www.cowalgathering.com to enter.

Entry forms for the solo piping competitions will live later this month. I will confirm the exact date shortly.

Kind regards

Malcolm

I would like to wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year.

It may only be the first week in January but plans for this year’s Cowal Gathering are already at an advanced stage and i thought it it would be appropriate to update everyone on some important dates.

Seating and admission tickets will go on sale via the website in mid February, with the dancing entries going online in mid March. The solo piping forms will be available via the website in mid April. The exact dates will be confirmed nearer the time in a blog and on the website.

More blogs will follow confirming all important dates and deadlines and updating you with what you can expect to see at this year’s Cowal Highland Gathering.

I hope to see you at Cowal in August.

Malcolm

Plans for this year’s event are really moving forward!

Dancing entries are coming in thick and fast and the move to a random draw for the dancing order seems to have been very well accepted. It is a much fairer way for the order to be decided and means that those who could not be online when it goes live are not disadvantaged,
It also means our overseas competitors no longer have to get up in the middle of the night to enter. I always felt so sorry for the Canadian and American dancers who got up at 4am to submit their form. Now it is only us in the office that need to lose sleep over the entry process.

Solo Piping entries will go live on the 20th April and i am really pleased to confirm there will be a c grade competition for the seniors this year. Although there are only 20 places available and they will go to the first 20 to enter. So dont wait to enter get your form in as soon as they go live.

Much more news to come but i dont want to over load everyone in my first blog..

Please come back for regular updates.