A Rainy day between the
sunshine
All England Championships 2015.
(Distance covered = 0.2 mile/Ascent =+2m)
The All England Highland Dancing Championships are held in Corby which is down cockneeland way, there's no Mountains or Hills anywhere near, nevermind one with a crashsite on it, but as my website is about what I do when my Daughter is Highland Dancing I've included it.
As I'm always on a tight time schedule so as to be back to the competitions in time for them finishing, there's not really any hills remotely near enough to Corby that I can visit. The Imperial War Museum at Duxford is just within range as is the Newark Air Museum but I'd already visited them on numerous previous occasions.
Inside one of the hangers at Duxford. I have
been to the crashsites of 6 Aircraft Types seen in this photo!
Some of the old Airliners parked outside at
Duxford
Wish I had that equipment when I changed my son's VW Golf engine.
It made a change to see some intact ones
So on this day I decided I would just chill out and spend the day sitting on my folding camping chair in the sun and hopefully catch up with a little sleep..
My folding camping chair
The All England Championships is split into two halves, The Closed Championships in the morning, which is only for Dancers born in, or resident in England and the Open Championships in the afternoon which, as the name suggests is open to everyone. Halfway through the morning session the heavens opened and everyone was subjected to a proper soaking for about an hour.
Two shots of Heather doing the swords in the confined Championships
After the deluge had passed over the sun came out and it became very hot, so now instead of the rain preventing me from having a nap it was the uncomfortable heat, so I went and sat in a neighbouring Tent and had a good long natter with Tommy who also enjoys the odd walk in the hills, while pinching quite a few of his wife Doreen's chips.
Heather and Lewis being interviewed for BBC Radio Northampton.
The results of the Confined championships turned out to be quite a nailbiter with Heather and another Dancer called Lewis getting two firsts and two seconds each. In a Highland Dancing contest you get 88 points for coming first in a dance, this figure decreases incrementally for 2nd, 3rd etc. These point for the four dances done are added up and the Dancer with the most points is the winner. When it is a tie like on this day the individual Judges points are added up to decide the winner so Heather ended up as Runner Up by a mere 3 points. Still a fantastic acheivement made even better when she also finished as Runner Up in the Adult open Championships in the afternoon.
Having fun with Chloe,Jake and Max before the long drive home(well Heather seems to be having fun!)
I never managed to have
my nap as planned so I wasn't looking forward to the long drive home in
the heat, but by the time we'd stopped at the American OK Diner just past
Newark for some tea, the sun was going down and it was much cooler
and the roads were nice and clear
so it wasn't to bad a trip home.
Donna, a credit to you and your dance school! Xx
---Ben Nicholl(Steward Ben)13/07/2015