DCUK Crown The 2015 British Champions

The weather was perfect on Saturday 19th September as DCUK returned for the 3rd time to the fantastic facilities of the Select Security Stadium in Widnes, Cheshire for the 36th British Drum Corps Championships. Once again the “i-pitch” astro turf pitch provided a perfect marching surface for the competing units and so the day was set for an exciting climax to the 2015 Drum Corps United Kingdom season

The day started at 12.45pm with all 10 Open Class Corps competing in the Preliminary contest would decide which 8 Corps would go through to the evening floodlit Open Class Finals and which 2 Corps would compete for the A Class Championships…

Prelims Results
Stafford Lancers – 51.30
The Pacemakers – 52.35
Beeches – 55.20
Liberty – 55.45
East Coast Elite – 61.20
37th Kingswood – 63.25
Revolution – 64.80
Cadence – 66.85
Kidsgrove Scouts – 84.35 (0.2)
The Company – 84.75

So now it was time for the 3 Championships events…

This year there was just two Corps in the Junior Class Championships but the fight for the top spot was no less fierce with a repeat of the top two Corps from 2014 fighting it out all season. In the end Concord AllStars reversed the fortunes of last season winning the title – just keeping ahead of Thurrock Marching Brass. The Caption Awards in the class were awarded as follows: Concord won Visual, Percussion, Brass, Music and Effect with Thurrock taking the Guard captions.

Junior Class Results
2nd – Thurrock Marching Brass – 56.90
1st – Concord AllStars – 60.75

In the A Class Championships we also had two Corps fighting it out for the British A Class title with The Pacemakers taking 1st Place and also winning the Brass, Music and Effect Caption Awards with Stafford Lancers getting the Visual, Percussion & Guard Caption Awards. To add to their celebration, The Pacemakers were a founding member of DCUK 36 years ago and this was their first Drum Corps title.

A Class Results
2nd – Stafford Lancers – 52.65
1st – The Pacemakers – 54.90

And so we moved to the Open Class Finals. The floodlights came on and one of the biggest audiences we have had at a Championships event for a number of years were provided with the extravaganza that is Drum Corps under the lights and the support shown throughout the event was magnificent.

In a similar fashion to the Junior lass we saw a swap in fortunes from 2014 in the Open Class as last years top two Corps traded places with The Company winning their second DCUK British Championships title plus also taking the Visual, Percussion, Brass & Music Caption Awards. Kidsgrove Scouts were only 0.25 of a point behind in 2nd Place and took the Silver Medal along with the Guard and Effect Caption Awards with Cadence coming in 3rd for the Bronze medal.

This year we welcomed Beeches & Liberty into Open Class Finals for the first time (both having previously won the A Class Championships) and also saw a couple Corps swap places from Prelims. And so the final result was…

Open Class Results
8th – Liberty – 54.95
7th – Beeches – 55.90
6th – East Coast Elite – 61.20
5th – Revolution – 64.65
4th – 37th Kingswood – 65.45
3rd – Cadence – 66.15
2nd – Kidsgrove Scouts – 85.60
1st – The Company – 85.85