Ron­nie and Caro Mas Band have re­tained their Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) Band of the Year ti­tle for their 2018 pre­sen­ta­tion of Life’s Check­ered Board.

The large band, owned by vet­er­an so­ca artist Ron­nie McIn­tosh and his wife Car­o­line, copped their third con­sec­u­tive ti­tle when the re­sults were an­nounced yes­ter­day.

The band had pre­vi­ous­ly won the Medi­um Band of the Year ti­tle for four con­sec­u­tive years be­tween 2008 and 2011, be­fore it grew in­to a large band.

In an in­ter­view at the band’s Wood­brook mas camp just be­fore he be­gan cel­e­brat­ing with staff last evening, McIn­tosh said while they were hap­py ti­tles were not the dri­ving force be­hind the band’s an­nu­al pre­sen­ta­tions.

“When we first start­ed we were not con­cen­trat­ing on the ti­tles. We won the first year we came out, but that re­al­ly was not the plan,” McIn­tosh said.

Say­ing the band was fo­cused on pro­vid­ing good cus­tomer ser­vice, he said most of their 1,000 mas­quer­aders were re­turn­ing cus­tomers and for­eign na­tion­als.

“Cus­tomer ser­vice is one of the things that’s mak­ing us fa­mous and mak­ing peo­ple come back and rec­om­mend us to oth­er peo­ple,” McIn­tosh said.

He al­so said his mas­quer­aders did not need much prompt­ing to stick with­in their sec­tions at judg­ing points and were syn­chro­nised for much of the pa­rade route.

“Pre­sen­ta­tion is im­por­tant. It does not mean that you have to do the­atrics, dra­ma and fire­works. It is just how you come across stage and give the judges and peo­ple an op­por­tu­ni­ty to see the band and cos­tumes,” he said.

In sec­ond place in the large band com­pe­ti­tion was The Lost Tribe’s pre­sen­ta­tion Sev­en fol­lowed by Pa­parazzi Car­ni­val’s No­madik Na­tion.

The top three re­sults were the same for the Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion’s Down­town com­pe­ti­tion for Car­ni­val Tues­day. It was the fifth time that Ron­nie and Caro had won the cor­po­ra­tion’s Car­ni­val Tues­day ti­tle.

In the medi­um band cat­e­go­ry, K2K Al­liance’s We Stand Unit­ed beat Re­pub­lic Bank Ex­o­dus Steel Or­ches­tra’s The Eyes of God, which was de­signed by for­mer mul­ti­ple Band of the Year win­ner Pe­ter Min­shall. In third place was Jus Wee and Friends’ pre­sen­ta­tion Wee Take Flight. Like Ron­nie and Caro, the win was K2K Al­liance’s third ti­tle in as many years.