More than 30,000 spectators gathered on Glasgow Green to watch some nine hours of fierce competition across different grades.

The Grade 1 winners and 2011 World Champions were the Field Marshal Montgomery Band, from Lisburn, Co. Antrim, who greeted news of their seventh world title with undisguised delight.

Second was Simon Fraser University, from Canada, while third place went to the ScottishPower band.

The result means it is now six years since the title was last won by a Scottish band – House of Edgar Shotts and Dykehead, who triumphed in 2005.

Pipe Major Richard Parkes, MBE, who has led Field Marshal Montgomery to all seven of its victories, spoke of his delight at winning again but also said it was getting harder to keep winning the Worlds. "All the bands are getting better, and bigger as well.

"But we've been knocking at the door of this prize since last winning it in 2007 – we've been second every year since. It is simply great to win it again.

"It's all down to the quality of the players and the drive they have to be the best."

Few bands in the Grade 1 competition endured the misfortunes of New Zealand's Canterbury Caledonian Society, which lost its 88-year-old hall and much of its equipment in the Christchurch earthquake last February.

Chairman Richard Smith told how the band held fund-raisers, including concerts, a kilted-golf tournament and a whisky tasting, to find the £50,000 needed to bring the band to Scotland.

The 40-strong group had hoped to make the afternoon finals, but it did not work out for them.

"We missed the top six by one point. It is disappointing, but that's life," said Mr Smith, who described the World Championships as the "Holy Grail – you want to come here and put yourself up against the best in the world."