Rollercoaster Friday

Today is semi-finals day and we perform at 2.30pm so that meant an early start for the guard.  We had booked this rehearsal space 8-11am via WGI and it was far from ideal: a soccer field with 'turf turds' (sorry, I don't know the correct term!) - little black beads all through the astroturf.  WGI is very strict about leaving nothing on the arena after your performance so we had to make the call not to use the tarp in rehearsal.  Not only that but there was netting on the ceiling which made it impossible to rehearse high tosses.  However, in true Mayflower spirit, everyone made the best of it and we had a productive rehearsal, detailing some of the things the judges had commented on and chunking through the show.

Then we changed at the facility and got ready for semifinals.  Illness has been spreading through the guard this week and we had one member who was touch and go if she would march, but she was absolutely determined she wasn't good to miss the chance to perform one more time at UoD.

Things are a little more familiar now so ran smoothly.  We had also agreed with CGT (Michael's other guards) that we would all help each other on and off the floor, so this time we had a 30 man floor crew!

Yesterday in prelims we received 0.2 in penalties for boundary violations (we weren't even aware there was a side boundary), so we were determined that would not happen today.  The T&P judge even question our pictures to ensure the covers were not glass (illegal to use)!  We ensured everything was within the boundary and set up and pre-show went smoothly.

It was a frustrating performance, many aspects were better than the day before and all our big moments were solid but everyone knew we could have had a stronger performance so now there was the long wait for semi-finals scores, which would not come out until the conclusions of semis.  Going into semis in 15th place is a scary place to be.  This 16th place guard has nothing to lose and 15th wants to dearly hang on to that position - so the wait was LONG!

The guard got to watch the rest of semi-finals and we saw quite a few nervy performances from other groups as well as some outstanding shows.

The standard in IW class is through the roof this year - so much stronger than the last time we were here.  Once Pride had concluded their performance we headed back to the buses and back to the hotel foyer to wait, as a group, for the scores.

This has been a tradition for the guard to meet here and find the scores together.  This time it was either going to be good or bad news!  After frantically hitting 'refresh' on CompetitionSuite, the recaps came in, and the staff checked and double checked before announcing to the guard that we had, for the 5th time, made it into WGI finals in 15th place.  The guard above us, UCF Pegasus dropped from 14th to 16th and Lexi moved from 16th to 14th (congrats to them).

This achievement felt more emotional and happy than all our other trips because the standard is so high and some amazing and big-name groups didn't make it in.

You can imagine there was a lot of cheering, loads of tears and much hugging.  Happy and jubilant was an understatement, and these are the memories that we will all hold for the rest of our lives, and these are the moments that make all the blood, sweat and tears, & hours spent in a gym worth it.

So a few drinks to celebrate were in order (and some decent food) so we headed to Red Lobster and had a small drink (or 2).

Tomorrow we have a late start, a 3-hour rehearsal (where I am sure there will be a big crowd) and then relax at the hotel, change and get ready for our WGI World Class finals performance at 8.30pm   (1.30am UK time) of "Fleur De Mai' one more time.