The second ISTD qualifier of the year was at Castleford and we turned out with a slightly reduced team to gain those all important qualifying places for Blackpool. The children’s events saw Lewie, April, Paige, Grace S and Jack all in action and all reached the finals of their ballroom events. All except Lewie also reached their Latin finals, although reaching the final with his Waltz was a great achievement since he is only six and had to dance in the under 8 years section.
April made a fifth and third in her events, Paige two seconds, Grace S a fourth and third and Jack two second places. All our dancers had to be recalled at least once to make their finals so had to earn their places. Jack and Grace also came third in both of their couples events.
The adults day began with the sequence events and most of these had large entries. All our dancers had at least one recall except the Over 35 years which was a straight final. Olivia, Craig and Libbie all made their final, finishing fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. In the Over 35 years event Paul came first with Karen, Serena and Chris filling the next three places. Making the finals of the Over 50 years event were Andrew and Allison who came first and second respectively with Peter making his first final in this event and finishing sixth. Well done to you all.
The ballroom, and latin events followed and although the numbers in these were low there were still some good dancers to beat. Debbie was the only one with a recall in her events but ended up winning both, a great achievement. There were also first places for Olivia, Peter, Carol, Hazel, Paul, Allison, Karen and Andrew.
The couple’s events usually allow everyone to relax a bit more, especially with some impromptu partnerships.
In the ballroom events there were wins for Chris and Serena with Peter and Carol second in the same event which was repeated in the latin. Craig and Libbie came first in their ballroom event with Paul and Karen closely behind in second. Then in the Paso Doble Craig and Charlotte B won, repeating their success from Blackpool. Olivia and Emily came second in their ballroom event. Charlotte S first with Charlotte B in the ballroom and then with Emily in the latin made a respectable fifth in both events after some last minute partnership rearrangements.
A good day all round with most of those qualifying who needed to although, there is still work to be done of course.
Boris was pleased to welcome McKenzie to the club who came in full Highland dress (complete with sporran) although he was quite pleased he hadn’t brought his skean dhu. Once again our thanks go to the partners of course; Liam, Emily and for the first time in the sequence events, Olivia.
The next outing is only a couple of weeks away which is our own event, this time at a new venue. As always it provides some of our less experienced dancers with a chance to test their skills on the competition floor and also our more experienced dancers the chance to step up and partner.
It promises to be a great day, don’t miss it!!!!