The New Year kicked off once again with the first ISTD qualifier at Kettering. Not so snowy this time, although it had been forecast, but the day turned out in fact to be bright and sunny. It was almost a full team outing and Boris enjoyed meeting up again with old friends. It was also nice to see the welcome return of Karen H and Leila to the team.
When we arrived it was clear that there were more competitors than usual and not only was it going to be a busy day but we were going to have our work cut out to qualify. It seemed a long time since we had been to a competition but we were soon back into the swing of things and our newest (and youngest) 
member of the team, Luke, got things off to a great start by taking first place in his ballroom event and third in the Latin, a fantastic achievement for his first competition. Both Grace S and Leila made their ballroom finals and Leila also made her sequence final. In the Junior section Molly, Grace P, Emily and Olivia all made their ballroom finals and Emily and Molly also made the final of their ballroom couples event. Grace P and Molly made their Latin final and Grace P and Olivia, dancing together, made their Latin couples final. Grace P also completed a hat trick by making her Sequence final. 
A good showing then by our younger team members, would the adults be able to continue the standard?
We need not have worried of course, they rose to the challenge and achieved 11 first places overall: Chris, Hazel, Sue, Neil, Andy and Christine in ballroom, Chris and Neil in Latin, Neil and Andy in Sequence and Dennis and Sue in the ballroom couples. All our other adults performed magnificently with almost all of them making their finals and whilst their were many high points it was worth noting that our dancers took the top four places in the over 35 years section and the top six places in the over 50 years section of the sequence events.
Overall, we had another very successful day and thanks once again go to our partners Luke, Alex and Emily. We have a busy couple of months ahead but of course look forward to the challenges and hope everyone is inspired towards even greater success.