Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 15/Feb 07:16

All tied up

FIRST, second, third, fourth – in competitions, that’s how results usually go. But Carnival 2025’s steelpan contests have defied the order of things with an abundance of two-, three- and even four-way ties. It’s been first, second, second, second. Pan clashes are always close. Competition is fierce. Standards are high. You expect ties, particularly during early rounds. However, this season has seen dead heats taken to new heights. The Panorama large-band preliminaries judged from February 9-12 ended with two bands tied in third place, four bands tied for sixth and another four for tenth. Additionally, in the small-band category finals on January 25, two bands tied for the top spot, four bands came fifth and two bands came ninth. This followed a semifinal round in which two bands tied for second, fourth, sixth, eight, tenth and 13th each. Even the junior Panorama finals on February 2 saw four bands tie for second, two for eighth and two for 11th. There was a tie for second place between two bands in the secondary school class. Mushrooming of ties is not, as contended by Pan Trinbago president Beverly Ramsey-Moore, a sign of “improvement” in the music. The root of the situation is more likely the judging system. For instance, the system sees the highest and lowest scores from six judges removed, a standard measure in adjudication designed to root out favouritism or bias or any attempt to fix results. But the process goes further: one judge’s score is then randomly dropped, leaving behind only three figures. This reduction in the spread of marks means it is harder for bands to be distinguished from one another. “Pan Trinbago’s judging system is one of the fairest in the world,” Ms Ramsay-Moore contended when questioned, for a second time, about all this on February 2. Yet even she had to admit to never seeing so many ties in a final as those that transpired in the final of January 25. The truth is, these ties are not fair to bands or their players who work hard, demonstrate incredible discipline and talent and deserve to be properly listed by order of merit when results come out. A preponderance of ties, outside of the ordinary leeway for them, sends a signal that all bands are the same and that the judging criteria have failed to set them apart. Lumped together, over time, bands become less susceptible to the sharp blade of competition. That diminishes pan. Thus, Pan Trinbago needs to review its judging system. Perhaps officials might find use in consulting the archives of the late musicologist Joslynne Carr-Sealey, housed at the library of UWI St Augustine. The post All tied up appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.