Team Viola celebrating their win as Senior British Champions. /Credits : Team Viola

1262 competitor passes were handed out at the 2018 British Championships in Nottingham this weekend to the 63 teams gracing the arena in a dazzling display of costumes. Banners were hung and flags flew as families and friends chanted their support from the stands.

Senior

On Saturday the three senior teams competed against each other for the first time to a packed stadium. Wight Jewels (Isle of Wight) skated first in bright red dresses and improved on their score from their last competition, earning 25.80. Skating in sparkling purple to Pure Imagination, Viola (Cardiff) hugely improved their score, gaining 32.68. The defending British Champions, Zariba (Aberdeen) were last to skate and skated a feisty programme to FU by Miley Cyrus. This was their first outing this year, having only recently reformed a senior team and they scored 22.76.

The next day was a fight for the gold medal with all three teams sustaining falls. Wight Jewels skated their space themed programme ‘To the moon’ claiming 48.74 points and Zariba fought back with a dramatic programme to a Moulin Rouge medley, earning 51.58 points. However, the stand out performance was Viola with their beautiful free programme set to a Beatles medley, scoring 66.86. In first place was Viola with 99.54 points. Second place was Wight Jewels with 74.54 points and in third place was Zariba with 74.35, with a difference of only 0.2 points between second and third place.

Junior

This year there was fierce competition in this category between the five times British Champions Icicles (Nottingham) and Solway Stars (Dumfries). Solway stars skated first with a captivating short programme which silenced the audience, scoring 38.44 points. Reigning champions Icicles fought back with a routine to Sax by Fleur East, scoring 39.72 points.

Both teams had everything to skate for on the Sunday and they didn’t disappoint. Wearing long blue dresses, Solway Stars skated to Moana and scored 64.70, coming in second with a total of 103.14. Icicles were skating to a Michael Jackson medley and earned 76.16 points, a programme which also earned them the prize for most entertaining programme of the day. Their total was 115.88 points.

Senior B and Junior B

Uncontested in the Senior B category AllStars from Slough had a disappointing short programme on the Saturday with a fall and scored 17.34 but skated well for their free programme, earning 39.32 (a total of 56.66).

Meanwhile in the Junior B category, Whizz Kids (Altrincham) and Fusion (Bracknell) fought it out to win the national title. Whizz Kids took the lead in the short programme wearing a beautiful pink, earning 28.22 points with Fusion scoring 20.16. The free programme to Maleficent further increased Whizz Kids’ lead with 45.18 (73.40 in total) and Fusion came second with 31.68 (51.84 in total).

Preliminary

Preliminary was a hotly contested category with 10 teams competing. Phoenix from Lee Valley won gold with a fantastic performance to Cops and Robbers (40.28 points – the highest scoring preliminary team at the British Championships ever) ahead of Amici from Sheffield (26.38 points) and Northern Lights from Inverness (25.89 points).

Mixed Age

It was a close contest in the mixed age category with 11 teams battling for medals. Rocking Robins from Nottingham skated to a pitch perfect medley, earning gold with 41.22. Solway Eclipse from Dumfries earned silver with 38.71 points and Unum from Sheffield earned bronze with 35.49.

Juvenile

In Juvenile, Team Silhouettes from Nottingham skated a strong programme earning a 43.07. Solway Lightning from Dumfries gained a silver medal for their new programme to Mary Poppins (31.46 points) while Wight Sparkles from Isle of Wight followed hot on their heels earning bronze with 28.70.

Elementary

Elementary was a popular category with 12 teams fighting for a podium place. Icepops from Nottingham led the way with 26.10 points, followed by Emerald from Bradford with 20.05 points and a very sparkly Stardust from Lee Valley dazzled the judges with 19.01 points.

Adult

Thirteen teams competed in this category with two clear leaders earning gold and silver. Starlight Rain from Stirling earned 31.57 points, closely followed by Bladerunners from Altrincham (31.13 points). However, the adult competition ended with very controversial decisions by the judging panel and the Governing body.

PDFs for all teams