WHEN eight-year-old Sean Grace finished his competition piece in the final of the Australasian Piping Championships, The Silver Tassie, on Sunday, the audience’s applause nearly lifted the roof off the Sutton Forest Village Hall.
Sean was the competitor in a field which included pipers from Scotland and Canada, as well as leading young Australian pipers.
Sean became interested in bagpiping when his father, Steven, served with Scotland’s famous Black Watch, and used to march with the battalion’s pipe and drum band.
The young Chatsworth piper said he liked the bagpipes because they are “so noisy”.
Hopefully, Sean’s parents have a high tolerance to noise, since his twin sister Charlize plays the side drums.
Sean won the Under 12 solo piping contest on Sunday.
The 2009 Silver Tassie for the Australasian Young Piper of the Year went to Cameron Barnes of Methill, Scotland, one of several competitors in Australia on scholarships with the City of Blacktown Pipe Band.
The runner up was Brisbane piper Christopher McLeish.
Now in its sixth year, The Silver Tassie is organised by Sutton Forest’s A Little Piece of Scotland.
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