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9th-12th-Lancers - Year 1984 - Page 0071

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Regiment 9th/12th Lancers
Year 1984
Transcription Ballroom Formation Dancing
Atter our extraodinarily good season
under the guidance of Hugh Paton,
the Quartermaster (when we won the
Army Bailroom Dance Championships
at Chipping Sodbury in a cioseiy
fought dance , off against 2 Paiai, the
Regiment wondered what wouid
happen at the retirement of the
manager, Paton After alt, the boys
had relied so much on Hug'riie to
produce the answers in moments of
crisis during the king season. A case
springs to mind at the time when RWF
fielded, or should I say Hoored, a pair
not uniike Fran Cotton and Graham
Maurie in the Semi >Final of the BAOR
Championships. Wearing their
Sequined dress, white tuxedos and
steei toed DMS boots, these two
proceeded to Wipe the floor With our
boys in the 'Rock n Roii‘ Section untii
Paton stepped in, caiiing for ‘Time
Out'! RWF were disquaiilied during
the break as it turned out that the Fran
Cotton lookalike hadn’t sewn on his
own sequins. A lucky escape for the
dancing team!
Despite his absence however, aii is
not lost this season, Abraham, a
wonderful iittie dancer himself, has
stepped into the breach to take the
team to further glory. He wili be
remembered as the man who swept ail
before him in the disco section during
the 82 Finals in East Purtey; cries oi
‘Look out John Travolta’ accompanied
his interpretation of ”a bear With a sore
head’ at Locarno.
This season started With a bang
when Mason announced his decision
to enter the Modern Bailet Section in
the inter , Regimentals. this after a
highly successfui career as the anchor
man for the West Pewsey 'Tug of
War’ teami We wondered whether the
transition was possibte, it had been
suggested that a pirouette at i6 stone
was a suicidai move and the team
watched in astonishment as he iost 4
stone, to become one of the more
accompiished dancers during this
season.
Meanwhiie in the more conventionai
Wattz and Quickstep, Mcintyre and
Wood continued to stun audiences
with their abiiity to mpid into a tight
hub unit on the floor. They claim that
it is totaiiy due to the pressure put on
them by SQMS Gardner, their B
Squadron trainer.
Anyway enough of the characters,
the season in retrospect was ail about
team spirit and hard work. Many a
tong night has been spent sewrng
sequins on to much used green tong
riohns, polishing steei toe caps and
putting the itnishing touches to mock
diamond tiaras.
In the first dance of the new season
the Regiment got off to a fine start
wtth Conroy and Marshail beating the
first pair from 7 Tk Tpt Sqri, whose
polished interpretation of the Military
Two Step took a distinctly poiitical
THE 9TH/llTH hovAt triNcEns REGiMENTAl JOURNAL
overtone with a rubber biow up repiica
of a famous Russian Leader being
kicked at every change of direction
The Judges decided that this action
was not in the spirit of the dance and
disqualified the team lor ’boot'
We then faced one of the toughest
teams in our group. Regarded highty
for it’s stamina and physicai presence,
the Neasdeii WRAC Detachment
danced happily together for hours on
end. The odd unkind reference to size
and shape took nothing away from the
overali performance and, by the and ot
the evening, we were iucky to beat
this ciosely kriit team,
Anyway the team seems to go from
strength to strength. We took forward
to the Semi » Finais of the BAOR
section against the very accompiished
22 Armd Bde team, known as Nuttals
Mintoes, who are renowned for their
abiiity to lead everyone a merry dance.
Pip Pip
HCL
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