Day Out At Wicksteed Park

With Christmas and New Year out of the way it’s time to get back to the serious business of qualifying. The first ISTD event of the year is always Kettering and for those who have been regular attendees since the first one in 2013 will remember that we have had to battle with snow on more than one occasion.

However this year the weather was particularly mild and so without the elements the only thing we had to do battle with were the other competitors. Boris and his chums were raring to go, fresh from their Christmas break and looking forward to cheering everyone on.

With no juveniles dancing today and Jack having moved into the adult section only Grace S and Paige were in action in the children’s section. Many of the dancers here today will be the ones who need to be beaten to do well at Blackpool and so recalls and finals are hard to come by in many of the sections. Nevertheless they held their own against stiff competition with Grace S making the final with her Quickstep and Paige finishing second in her sequence event.

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Next came the adults and their day began with the ballroom events. Again there was strong competition with recalls in many of the events. Finalists today were Jack, a great result in his first adult event and finishing second, Charlotte B, Carol, Peter, Emma (in her first qualifier with the school), Serena, Hazel, Dennis, Josh, Neil, Karen, Andrew and Dawn. In addition we had the following winners: Grace P, Chris, Paul, Allison and Sue.

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Then followed the sequence three dance events and we had strong representation across all three age divisions. Making the final of the under 35 years section we had Grace P and Josh who were placed first and second with Emma, Emily and Craig filling fourth, fifth and sixth places in that order. In the over 35 years event Serena won, with Paul, Karen, Chris and Neil taking the following five places. Finally we had the over 50 years section in which there were seven recalled to the final. Andrew won with Allison, Dennis, Carla, Sue, Dawn and Peter filling the remaining places in that order.

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That only left the Latin section and once again there were final placings for Debbie, Charlotte B, Grace P, Craig, Chris,Serena, Hazel, Paul, Josh, Neil and Karen. Winning their Latin events to complete their “double” were Allison and Sue.

A good days work then and congratulations to all taking part and as usual we had some terrific support from the rest of the team. There is of course some work still to do but it was a good start to the year.

Huge thanks to our team of partners for their invaluable contribution; Luke, Liam, Josh, Grace P, Emily and Craig.

Our next event is the Medal Presentation dance so we hope you will all join us for a fun and social afternoon with plenty of cake! Boris will be there.