26th February 2001
Successes at WGI Event in Holland
5am on Friday 23rd February the Cadet and Senior Guards with 20+ staff and supporters left Brighton for a weekend in the Netherlands, via the Channel Tunnel, to compete at the 2001 WGI European Regional Contest in s'Hertogenbosch. Both Guards would be competing against mainly unknown opposition (mainly from Holland but also one Guard in each class from the USA) and therefore we were under no illusion that as this was a Prelims and Finals event our day on Saturday could be over fairly early.
To start the weekend, and after 10 hours travelling!, we spent Friday afternoon in Amsterdam (with a some of the group taking a few wrong turnings and ending up in shops they maybe shouldn't have!!) before making our way to our hotel in Eindhoven.
We awoke Saturday morning to be presented with a reasonable covering of snow which luckily did not affect us we were staying only 30 minutes from the Arena however some units did have problems including one British.
The Senior Guard were drawn second out of ten to compete in the Independent Open Class which meant getting to the facility by 9.30am. This early start and also recovering from a long day the day before seemed to take its toll - as whilst the 9 girls performed a good quality performance, compared to recently, it was a fairly jaded display which obtained a score of 61.6 and left as all on the edge of our seats to see whether they would be one of the 7 units to make it forward into the evening Finals. As the score for the unit that performed eight was announced we breathed a sigh of relief as we had made into Finals - in 7th place.
In contrast to the Seniors, the Cadet Guard were raring to go in the Regional A Class by the time it was their turn and the missing 'bounce' from the previous weekend at Dagenham was back - the 10 members performed their hearts out. Even though this was by far their best performance of the season, the Guard were up against 6 other units and with only the top 3 moving forward (which actually changed to the top 4 later on in the day due to the first place Guard scoring a very high score) they were resigned to the fact that their day may be over. However when the scores were displayed and we had been placed 3rd with 69.9 and had made it into Finals the smiles (and tears) from the members was one of the best parts of the weekend.
Once all the Preliminary performances were completed there was a 3½ break and so to make our mark on the local area we ordered and collected over 50 McDonalds meals and took over the warm up room as our 'restaurant'!!!
Back into the Finals competition and the Cadet Guard once again put on a brilliant performance and came off the arena on a high to match the morning. The Seniors had waited 10 hours since their Prelims performance to compete and it was worth the wait. Was this a different Guard from the morning as they were back to their top form again. Both Guard received excellent crowd response when they performed especially as all the other UK Guards were cheering us on from the stands and at the Olympic Retreat, which was held at 10.30pm, both Guards held their position which made a great finish to a long but enjoyable day.
Back to the hotel by just after midnight and then on Sunday morning a leisurely trip back through Holland, Belgium and France to arrive home at 7pm was the end of a successful and enjoyable weekend. Well done to both Guards on their achievements and thank you to the staff, parents and supporters for their help and support over the 3 days.
No peace for the wicked as next weekend all three Guards are back to Dagenham.