COMMODORES - National Champions.
On Thursday, 13th of September members, staff and parents of Poynton Commodores travelled to Burton on Trent for their final four day build up to the Drum Corps United Kingdom National Finals. This was held at Burton Albion football ground on Sunday the 16th. Over the next few days they rehearsed for long hours, starting early morning and on one occasion finishing under floodlights at 9 o’clock at night.
By Sunday they were ready for the championships and travelled to the stadium where they performed an exhibition display in the afternoon and then returned to perform again under floodlights and in the rain before judges in the early evening. The show was a roller coaster ride of emotions set to music varying from slow tempos to a fast exhilarating finale, all reflected visually by the choreographed dance, vibrant colours and flag movements of the Colour Guard.
When all corps had competed they all assembled on the arena for the results and, after a few nail biting moments, the Commodores were declared as the D.C.U.K. National Open Class Champions, beating Concord Drum and Bugle Corps from Sheffield into second place. The cries (and Whoops) of excitement were mixed with the tears of emotion as everyone connected with the corps celebrated their momentous win. The Corps has not had a trouble free year with many disruptions to their rehearsals, mainly due to this year’s very bad weather. So, this result is a great justification for all the very hard work undertaken by members, staff and parents and has never been more richly deserved.
They returned briefly to their base with a chorus of ‘We are the Champions’ echoing down the coach, before returning home to Poynton late in the evening.
They now have to start to key themselves up again for the Drum Corps Europe championships which take place in two weeks time at the Sparta Stadium in Rotterdam, followed by the British Youth Band Championships in Coventry a week later.
Congratulations to everyone connected with the Corps, see www.commodores.info for more information.
Mike Williamson
