When the late and great Major Peter Parkes was in his pomp, it was not uncommon for him to conduct 4 or even 5 bands in the areas in the top section. This, and the fact that he remains one of banding's greatest conductors, helped him to accumulate top section area titles at a great rate of knots. In 8 years from 1980 he won 17 titles and, after a blank year in 1988, won a further 10 titles by 1996. The 'magic' started to evaporate from the mid 1990s but he did steer Desford to 3 titles in the 2000s to take his final tally of top section titles to 30.

Nowadays, the area contest series is squeezed into no more than 3 or 4 weekends and it is difficult to conduct more than 2 or 3 bands in the top section. Ignoring the logistical difficulties, Nick Childs this year conducted four bands in the top section, winning with Woodfalls and Reg Vardy for his 21st and 22nd area titles respectively.

Garry Cutt (last year) and Bob Childs (this year) are the latest conductors to hit double figures for area wins and a few other prominent conductors are bubbling just under the surface, including Russell Gray, David King and Jeremy Wise all now with 8 wins.

For the time being, there are thirteen conductors with 10 or more top section titles to their name as follows:

30 wins - Major Peter Parkes

22 - Nick Childs

16 - Harry Mortimer, Walter Hargreaves

15 - Howard Snell

13 - Alex Mortimer

12 - Melvin White

11 - Eric Ball, Stanley Boddington

10 - Keith Wilkinson, Richard Evans, Garry Cutt, Robert Childs