Certain sports, for example golf and tennis, have their so-called 'majors' and sportsmen measure the success or otherwise of their careers by the number of 'majors' that they manage to win.

Bands in the UK also have what might be termed 'majors'. For a long time, the list contained just the National Championship and the British Open but then in 1978 the inaugural European Championship was held and very quickly established itself as a 'major'.

More recently, we have seen the All England (International) Masters established as an important event in the UK contesting calendar, arguably becoming the 4th 'major' (at least for English bands).

Even more recently there's been a new kid on the block, the English National, which has attracted all of the best bands in England in a very short space of time. There are certainly question marks about the English National's future but as long as it can attract bands of the calibre of Black Dyke, Foden's, Fairey and Brighouse it has a justifiable claim for 'major' status.

For the purposes of brassstats.com, these five contests are grouped together as 'majors' and there are currently over 200 such contest results stored in the database (listed here). More than 50% of these contests have been won by just EIGHT conductors. These are our modern-day greats.

21 - Major Peter Parkes
19 - Professor David King
14 - Allan Withington
13 - Professor Nicholas Childs
9 - Howard Snell

9 - James Watson

9 - Dr Robert Childs
8 - Garry Cutt