Nottingham 2009
Less than a week after Warwick OUDT took the slightly longer trip to Nottingham to meet the challenge of Cambridge and IC. Despite the increased competition Oxford kept up their winning ways, dominating the opens and cruising through the team match.
In the Beginners Ballroom competition Peter and Georgina decided that anything less than first wasn't good enough and claimed the top prize in both the Waltz and the Quickstep. They were joined in both finals by Toby and Vicky, who finished 2nd in the Waltz and 4th in the Quickstep, and Beginners’ Vice Captain Chloe Mitchell and partner Ysobel Roby, who took the bronze in both. Ollie Rankin and Alice Brunton also made the Waltz final, finishing 5th, and Annie Ng and Katja Tchekourda came 6th in the Quickstep. In the Intermediate 3-dance Zsolt and May were Oxford's only representative, but they did us proud coming a close 2nd. In the Advanced event Daniel and Sarah once again proved too slick for the competition and walked away with the gold. Alex and Annemarie and Paul and Becky also made it though to the final, finishing 5th and 6th.
Like at Warwick we matched the Ballroom successes in the afternoon with the Latin events; in the Beginner's Cha Oxford took the top 4 places! Annie and Katja took the gold, followed by Lein Wei and Fancesca Aquilina in 2nd, Derek Lam and Amelie Chan in 3rd and Ruth Morgan and Francesca Cunningham in 4th. In the Jive Annie and Katja just missed out on doubling their tally, coming 2nd, and were joined by Peter and Georgina who grabbed the bronze. In the Intermediate 3 dance Zolt and May, Alex and Annemarie and Melvin and Patricia all made the final, finishing 4th, 5th and 6th respectively. Oxford really shone in the advanced final, taking all 3 podium places; Peter and Reka once again took the top prize, followed by Daniel and Sarah in 2nd and Ivan and Helen in 3rd.
Alex Robinson danced with Jolanta Jasin again in the Ex-student competitions, finishing 4th in both. A special congratulations to Alex for surviving the 5 dance Ex-student Ballroom final before going straight back on to do the 4-dance Advanced final with Annemarie!
After the Rock and Roll and Salsa events we moved onto the Team Match. Oxford faced a set back before we even started; Marja had injured her back during the first round of the Advanced Ballroom and was forced to withdraw. This prompted us to call upon the Team's depth and versatility; Daniel and Sarah were moved over to A Team Waltz and the Latin couples were all moved up a place.
The format of Nottingham is unique; the competition is split up into 4, one containing all the A teams, another with all the B teams, a third with all the C teams and the finally one containing the rest (so D and below). Couples are also judged individually rather than as a team, and their scores are combined to find the best overall team in the category. The D team match is therefore the largest, and there were 4 rounds in total. Once the dust had settled Owen and Joanna claimed the top prize in the Waltz, Greg and Becca finished 1st in the Cha and Tom and Wanzhen took the gold in the Jive. However, due to some obscure marking in the Quickstep Oxford D team finished a point behind Cambridge D so didn't reclaim their trophy.
In the C team match all four couples finished above their Cambridge counterpart, and convincingly won the C team trophy. Special mention goes to Lukas and Zeynep and Alex and Eliza who finished top in the Cha and Jive. The B team match ended in a draw between Cambridge and Oxford, though Zsolt and May took the top prize in the Waltz and Paul and Becky finished top in the Quickstep. Finally came the A Team results, and Oxford completely dominated the tabs; like the C team every couple beat their Cambridge counterpart! On top of that Daniel and Sarah, Ivan and Helen and Peter and Reka all finished top in their dance, leaving a huge 6 point gap between them and their nearest rivals.
