A high school junior pipe band could lose its world title after a “clerical error” led to the announcement of the wrong winner in one of its categories at the World Pipe Band Championships.
The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (RSPBA), which runs the competition, said Lochgelly High School's victory in the Novice Junior B category was the result of an “administrative error”.
The RSPBA said it had sent letters to each band that played in Glasgow on Saturday, inviting them to a meeting to explain how the error would affect their final rankings.
Exact results will be announced after “in-depth discussions” with the bands.
Organizers said they “deeply regret” the incident, which was caused by a late change in the match order, and would do all they could to “make amends” for the mistake.
“Following a review of the rankings data, it became apparent that results were not being accurately controlled, which led to the extremely unfortunate situation where incorrect results for this grade were published,” a statement from the RSPBA's board of directors posted on its website said.
More than 200 bands from 13 countries gathered on Glasgow Green on Saturday and Sunday to take part in the World Pipe Band Championships.
The Inveraray & District Pipe Band was named overall winner, competing against competitors from as far away as Canada and the United States.
The RSPBA said the mistake in the Novice Junior B (NJB) division was due to a late notification of a change to the match order and the change not being reflected on all paperwork.
It is understood that only the results in the NJB category were affected by the administrative error.
The Courier reported that Lochgelly High School's junior band had been told they had dropped in the rankings and band leaders had been asked to attend an online meeting on Thursday to discuss the results.
Organizers said they had taken steps to prevent such mistakes from being repeated in the future.
