The Trinidad & To­ba­go De­fence Force were crowned the Na­tion­al Panora­ma Small Band cham­pi­ons on Thurs­day.

The Army band, rock­ing school uni­forms, took the ti­tle play­ing a Du­vone Stew­art-arrange­ment of Bal­ly’s 1989 hit Maxi Dub at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do. They scored 286 points, just three more than To­ba­go’s T&TEC New East Side Di­men­sion, who played Kees Dif­f­en­thaller’s Hel­lo arranged by Ker­sa Ram­sey.

De­fend­ing champs Gold­en Hands, who played High (on The Mu­sic) com­posed, arranged and sung by Vanes­sa Alexan­der Headley, had to set­tle for third with 280 points.

In ad­di­tion to the Small Band com­pe­ti­tion, pa­trons were treat­ed to some of the fi­nal­ists from the Ken “Pro­fes­sor” Philmore ca­lyp­so com­pe­ti­tion as well as sec­tions of San­do’s best Mas bands, in­clud­ing Kalicha­ran Car­ni­val, Li­onel Jagge­sar & As­so­ciates, House of Jacqui (Ju­nior Band) and tra­di­tion­al mas.

These el­e­ments were added to the show as an added in­cen­tive for pa­trons to stay in South to ex­pe­ri­ence to ex­pe­ri­ence the wider Car­ni­val ex­pe­ri­ence. Speak­ing about the ini­tia­tive, Pan Trin­ba­go’s South Cen­tral Re­gion chair­man Phillip Bark­er said, “This was a gold­en op­por­tu­ni­ty for San Fer­nan­di­ans to come out in their num­bers and get an ear­ly taste of Car­ni­val see­ing that there will not be a South Pre-Di­manche Gras show this year.”

Pan Trin­ba­go al­so paid trib­ute to cul­tur­al icons Ken “Pro­fes­sor’ Philmore, Dr Win­ston “Mighty Shad­ow” Bai­ley and Win­ston Scar­bor­ough, who all passed away last year. With­field Weekes and Steve Achai­ba (Posthu­mous) were al­so re­cip­i­ents of awards at the event.

Re­sults:

1 T&T De­fence Force - Maxi Dub (Du­vone Stew­art) 286

2. T&TEC New East Side Di­men­sion - Hel­lo (Ker­sa Ram­sey) 283

3. Gold­en Hands - High (On D Mu­sic) (Vanes­sa Alexan­der-Headley) 280

4. Laven­tille Ser­e­naders - Stranger (Ard­din Her­bert) 279

5. Ari­ma Gold­en Sym­pho­ny - Pan By Storm (Ter­rence BJ Mar­celle) 278

6. Up­town Fas­ci­na­tors - Hulk (Ojay Richards) 277

7. Fu­sion Steel En­sem­ble - Sweet Fuh Days (Dike Samai) 274

7. C&B Crown Cor­daans - Sweet Fuh Days (Ko­reece Gra­ham) 274

7. Fas­ci­na­tors Pan Sym­pho­ny - Ah Come Out To Par­ty (Yohan Pop­well) 274

10 La Hor­quet­ta Pan Groove - Year For Love (Kion Robin­son) 273

11 Tor­na­does - Pumpin (Sher­von “Shev” Ed­wards) 271

12 Al­pha Pan Pi­o­neers - Call­in Meh (Ma­ri­na Mar­i­an) 269

12. West Side Sym­pho­ny - Bac­cha­nal (Mick­iel Gabriel) 269

14. Jay Notes - Miss­ing Gen­er­a­tion (Ak­il Brown) 268