24th February 2004
Dagenham & WGI Reports
Dagenham
All four Guard travelled to Dagenham on Saturday 14th February.
The Rugrats improved massively from their last outing and whilst coming in 3rd (out of 3) their score increased and kept them on track for another satisfying season for these very young members.
The Junior Guard had made huge strides over the past couple of weeks and their performance was in a different league jumping them above all their opposition and they took their first ever 1st Place (out of 6) - tears all round.
The A Class Guard are proving to be a real force in their class for 2004 and they continued with their third straight 1st Place (out of 10) season a clear 3+ points ahead of the opposition.
Having had two 1st Places so far the Open Class Guard had continued to work on their impressive show but were just beaten into 2nd Place (out of 6) which gave Adam Sage, who had flown over from the USA for the weekend, plenty to consider for the following days rehearsal.
So with all Guards showing strongly in their respective classes the two older units were off to Holland the next week and all four back in action a week later in Wiltshire
WGI Regional - Holland
For the third time in four years, the A & Open Class units
set out for a 3 day trip to Holland on Friday 20th February to compete
in the ColorGuard Netherland sponsored WGI European Regional.
The Friday was spent travelling and sightseeing in Amsterdam and then on the Saturday we left the hotel to Den Bosch ready to compete against Dutch and English opposition.
The Open Class Guard performed last in their preliminaries and whilst still to the expected high standard the show looked a little flat and they were announced in 4th Place (out of 7) but only 0.9 away from Mayflower in 3rd with two Dutch Guard both about 6 points ahead.
The A Class Guard also performed last in their class with only 5 out of the 11 units going through to the evening Finals. As the scores were announced after each unit performed the tension built waiting for their score and they were really pleased to come in 2nd - the only UK unit to make the A Class Finals.
The A Class Finals event in the evening saw all units improve on their earlier performances but our Guard held onto their 2nd Place - a great achievement for such a young unit.
Whilst giving a much improved performance in the Finals event the Open Class Guard could not move up the rankings and stayed in 4th Place.
On the Sunday we made our way back home with a stop in Oostende to finish off another successful weekend.