Couple dance their way to best European champs result

GUERNSEY’S only competing ballroom and Latin dancers recently achieved their best result to date in the European Ballroom and Latin Championships.

Husband and wife Sandy and Darren Dyke recently competed at the European Ballroom and Latin Championships in Blackpool where they achieved their best competitive results yet, qualifying for two finals. (32041255)

Darren Dyke and his wife Sandy have been competing in international competitions for the past 13 years, training with coaches in Southampton and Manchester.

Their latest was held at the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, where the pair entered in three categories.

Mr Dyke described how he felt when starting the competition.

‘It’s always very nervous going into the first dance, but you get to settle in and it’s such a fantastic experience competing at this iconic venue.’

The ballroom events were the first to take place with Mr and Mrs Dyke entering the Over-50s with 26 others and Senior Three championships with 17 other couples, making it through to the semi-finals in both where 12 couples were chosen.

The dancers were unlucky in the Over-50s, placing seventh after dancing the waltz, tango, Viennese waltz, foxtrot and quickstep to live music performed by the Empress Orchestra – just missing out on a place to the final by one spot.

However, the couple were able to take it one step further in the Senior Three category and booked their place in their first senior Blackpool ballroom final.

There, they placed fifth in the waltz, fourth in tango, sixth in foxtrot and sixth in quickstep – which placed them sixth overall.

‘Dancing in a final at Blackpool is a massive achievement and especially at this level which is the just reward after the commitment we have put in on regular training in the UK as well as numerous competitions to get us to this level of dancing,’ said Mr Dyke.

Mr and Mrs Dyke then went on to qualify for the finals of the Over-50s Latin event, placing fifth in the cha-cha and sixth in the samba, rumba, paso doble and jive, again placing them sixth overall.

The couple are now looking to build on their momentum by focusing on preparation for the UK British Championships held in Bournemouth at the end of July.