In the 1986 qualifying contest at Brean Sands Holiday Centre in Somerset, the 20 top section bands played the tone poem Lorenzo by Thomas Keighley. Camborne, under Mike Cotter, took the top spot, some way ahead of Tredegar and Woodfalls who were second and third.
The result qualified Camborne to compete in the Pontin’s National Championship at Prestatyn when Mike was again asked to conduct the band. Mike was an immaculate dresser and had already decided to wear a white suit, white shirt, red tie, red socks and a red handkerchief in his top pocket. But he had a dilemma; what shoes to wear? It seems that he sought opinions from the players whether he should wear white shoes, red shoes or even one of each. The band took the conservative line and suggested that he wore the white ones as can be seen in the photograph. The formula seemed to work as a very good performance of the test piece An Epic Symphony earned them a solid third place.
