WGUK Mid Season Review 2009

The 2009 WGUK season is now half way through with 4 contests completed and 4 to go before the British Championships at the beginning of April.

We started the season on Sunday 11th January back in an old favourite venue at Grantham Meres Leisure Centre with 28 performances including all 8 of the Open Class units with Mayflower taking top spot in Open, Northern Academy the A Class, Guardsmen in Junior and Mayflower in Cadet Class.

On the 18th January we then moved to a new venue for WGUK, the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley, with a new show sponsor, The Guardsmen. This venue is probably one of the best on the circuit with not only a superb arena but also masses of space in the centre for the 23 competing units. Once again Mayflower reigned supreme in Open Class with Southern Knights taking A Class and Guardsmen & Mayflower holding onto the Junior and Cadet respectively. The large audience were also entertained by the first Indoor Percussion performance of the season (Legion Star) and also the talents of the Black Knights Wintercorps.

We moved into February and on the 1st Winterguard returned to Halifax for the first time in 11 years and the the Anchormen sponsored contest at the North Bridge Leisure Centre. Albeit a small entry of only 10 Guards the atmosphere at this show was possibly the best these units had experienced for a long time and with the added entertainment of The Anchormen Ensemble and Indoor Percussion, The Halifax BB Alumni (who got the biggest cheer of the day) and The Concord Experience the audience really got their monies worth at this event. Northern Academy came out top in the Open (with a new Season High Score), A and Cadet Class with the Avengers taking the Junior Class.

And then on the 8th February we returned to a venue that was new to the activity last season for the Alliance sponsored contest at Charter Hall in Colchester with another busy show of 23 Guards. Once again a very good size audience were exceptionally well entertained by some rapidly improving performances plus the added bonus of the first showing for the Alliance Indoor Percussion.  Mayflower continued their winning streak in Open Class (and edging ahead of Northern Academy's previous High score by 1 tenth of a point), the A Class being led by Southern Knights and once again Guardsmen in Junior and Mayflower in Cadet Class.

On Saturday 21st February the whole Open Class will be back in action - something not seen mid season by the activity for a number of years, (and with the top guards all in contention, and only 1 tenth separating the top two scores at the moment, anything can happen!) - together with 16 more Guards across the other 3 classes plus 3 exhibitions as the WGUK Mid-Season UK Regional comes to Stoke. This will be an event not to be missed and so we look forward to seeing you all at Fenton Manor Leisure Centre as the 2nd half of the WGUK season gets into full swing.

13th February 2009