back to news South Of England Championships The date, 18th March 2007-the day, Mothering Sunday, but this did not deter all the Mothers (and Fathers) from taking their offspring to the Loddon Valley Leisure Centre in Reading for a day of fabulous dancing. No less than 73 junior/juvenile couples attended this competition during the day and then about the same amount of adults for the evening session. This phenomenal event was run by Mary Richardson and as she rightfully said, "English dancing is definitely not dead". The standard was extremely high, from the juvenile beginners right up to the amateurs. The children kept us enchanted with their beautiful dancing and although the high numbers forced us to stay later than anticipated it was well worth it and an enjoyable day was had by all. The junior modern event was fiercely fought but the eventual winners were the charming John Giannini and his beautiful partner Stevie Jones. The juvenile modern was won by the elegant coupling of David Cockram and Kelsey Fryer. The Latin events were also fiercely fought but winning the juvenile Latin event were the vivacious Luke Miller and Charlotte Plant with the talented Stanislav Wakeham and Julia taking the junior Latin by storm. So much talent was on that dance floor, if it was electricity it could have kept the leisure centre alight all day. At the end of the childrens events it was time for the traditional giving of Easter Eggs to all the competitors, well those under the age of 16, but who were the two tall older looking children lurking at the back of the queue? Mark Elsbury and Richard Still had us all in tears of laughter as they stooped low at the rear of the ever growing Easter Egg queue but they couldn't fool the watchful eye of Mary. It was now time for the adults to grace the floor and like the younger dancers, the EADA Amateur Modern event was full to capacity with 40 couples starting. Split into four heats of ten the competition began. The speed and grace of these excellent dancers was amazing and the crowd was right behind every single couple. After whittling this huge entry down to the final 6 couples it was won by Mark and Olga Elsbury who are a delight to watch whenever they dance. The amateur Latin was not so busy but in the final we were pleased to see two of our English couples (Tom and Kerry and James with Francesca), amongst the pairings from Italy and Estonia. Again the standard was high throughout all the rounds in both these and all the other events of the day and the judges did a spectacular job in getting it so right. The youth modern was won by Andreas and Liis End and were closely followed by Jack Beale and Egle Sakalauskaite, even though Egle had to borrow somebody's shoes as hers had gone missing. You will be pleased to know that they did turn up. The youth Latin was fiery and exciting and the winner of this accolade went to Tom Parkes and Kerry Dennehy. We cannot finish this report without a mention for the fantastic senior dancers who danced and danced like there were no tomorrow right to the end of the day. My hat comes off to these men and women as they have so much talent and energy and aren't affraid to show it. I would like thank Mary and her team for making this yet another fantastic competition. See you all next year see more photos from SOE Submitted by Sarah 20/03/07 .