From The Land Of Sky Blue Waters
By Jim Ward

DCN July 11, 1962

Greetings once again from the Northland. The second half of June has been a busy time and we have five contests to report on in addition to several changes in the Midwest Junior Ratings and some general news from around the area.

First I'd like to clarify a statement that appeared in my column in regard to the Illinois State VFW contest. I did not mean to imply that the Royal-Airs could not have been beaten that night. Certainly did not have a perfect performance, as was shown by their score. However, their show was mechanically as close to perfect as one has the right to expect from a drum corps during the first part of June. Naturally, they have room for improvement and will improve as the season goes along. It is still my personal conviction, however, that had the Cavaliers made the line that night there would be a new State VFW champion today. Now we'll have to wait until Woodstock.

A couple of errors have been brought to my attention. The Chicago Cavaliers are not using "Carioca" as a concert number. It is being played on the march and replaces "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" from the 1961 repertoire. The new concert is "Bie Mir Bist Du Schun." Also, the Racine Scouts are using "Maria" from West Side Story in concert. "Sweet Georgia Brown" is being played on the march with Tom Stanton soloing.

In mentioning the Cedar Rapids Cadets and the Fort Dodge Lanciers as the two competing corps in Iowa we inadvertently omitted the Monahan Marksmen from Sioux City. They are an old corps with a very fine record through the years and although they do not plan much competition this year they will be on the line at the Iowa State Legion contest in August. Thanks to Dave Hatcher of the Marksmen for the information.

The ratings will be based on performances through the Cedarburg contest. You will note many changes and we expect the ratings to fluctuate quite a bit for a while until there are a few more contests between Wisconsin and Illinois corps so that an accurate comparison may be drawn.

Many corps, the Racine Scouts in particular, have improved greatly from 1961 while others, most notably the Purple Knights and the Marquette Crusaders, are down from last year's performances. Some, like the Bellville Black Knights, are still question marks and will remain so until they have competed more often. In parentheses are listed the number of contests, firsts, and seconds for each corps in the top fifteen.

MIDWEST JUNIOR CORPS RATINGS (June 24, 1962)
1. Chicago ROYAL-AIRS .................... (5-3-1)
2. Park Ridge CAVALIERS ................. (2-1-1)
3. Madison SCOUTS ........................... (3-2-1)
4. Racine SCOUTS .............................. (2-0-2)
5. Bellville BLACK KNIGHTS ............. (1-0-1)
6. Racine KILTIES ............................... (2-0-0)
7. Norwood Park IMPERIALS ............. (5-1-0)
8. Skokie VANGUARDS ...................... (3-0-0)
9. Rockford PHANTOM REGIMENT ... (3-0-0)
10. St. Paul SCOUTS ........................... (3-2-0)
11. St. Matthias CADETS .................... (3-1-0)
12. Rockford PURPLE KNIGHTS ....... (4-0-0)
13. Aurora VACQUEROS ................... (1-0-0)
14. Morton Grove COUGARS ............ (4-0-0)
15. Eau Claire BOYS ........................... (3-1-1)

Many contests will be held during the first part of July. Some of the more important ones are Madison on July 14, and McHenry, Illinois, on July 15. We will try to have a full report on these plus any other news we can pick up "From the Land of Sky Blue Waters."