Lancers History

Position:
DCUK "A Class" FINALS - Runners Up
BYBA Division 3 FINALS - 6th
BYBA Division 3 League Finish - 7th

Music:
Fiesta
Beautiful Maria of My Soul
Los Suerte de Los Tontos
Malaguena

Drum Major(s):
Jason Howard

The winter period was a time of great change for the Corps on a number of fronts especially on the instructional side with major changes in personal on both the Guard and Drumline. Infact it was a completely new instructional team that had the task of taking charge and developing both these sections made even more difficult by the fact that the appointments were only completely finalized in March April time facing a big challenge of a way behind schedule back on track

Over on Brass although the Instructional team stayed roughly the same whilst the section itself underwent major changes with new members replacing a few senior members who had hung up there horns and many completely switching sections onto new instruments.

"El Fuego Latino" was eventually chosen as the name for our 2003 show, it is Spanish for ?The Latin Fire? a perfect name for our exciting and adventurous Spanish programme!

With so many changes and a longer and more demanding show it was always going to be difficult to be ready for the start of the season at the first show Warrington (you know the one where it threw it down all day and there was a lake on the arena lol) we came a close second despite not marching the last number Malaguena which was to become the members favourite piece of the season!

Then the Corps went back out on the road once again performing up and down the country on DCUK & BYBA competition circuits with mass success, with most results coming in 1st or 2nd placing. As the season progressed we had our ups and downs, but again for every hurdle and every obstacle the Corps and the members overcame them.

DCUK Finals moved to Mansfield Town FC which turned out to be good venue, the Corps gained it highest ever A Class finish by finishing Runner Up with 57.8 in an admittedly small class which was eventually won by a much older member Phoenix. The Corps also had the satisfaction of taking both the High Guard and High Visual captions!

BYBA Finals were for the first time in ever to be held outside and much controversy surrounded the event as it was held at the Alexander Stadium Birmingham where you almost needed binoculars to see the Bands and you certainly did not get to see and hear them as the shows were meant to be!

With Lancers only doing the bare minimum of contests in order to qualify for Finals we end up with a league position of 7th and at Finals this improved to 6th despite in all honestly being worthy of a much higher finish; being just 18 points off 3rd with 795 points again taking both the Guard and Visual Captions!

For the second year running the record for the largest Corps Stafford Lancers had ever fielded was broken with 65 members, will that ever be beaten! Another first saw us hosting a BYBA competition BRASS EXPLOSION which ran at Stafford Rangers FC something we will be hoping to build on in future years!

At the end of year awards Stafford Lancers Corps Director Dave Milton was presented with the BYBA Presidents Award by Association Chairman Bob Girvan (a big gold cup) for services to the activity, quite an honour and it was also announced that our entry into the 2004 ?World Showband Championships? had been accepted!

So 2003 had been another good season, a year of change in many areas which as expected took time to bed in. A year of progress and consolidation, with the members learning and developing an awful lot from the show that they performed so well all over the country!

So to 2004 World Championship year, the last time that came round didn?t we have a new uniform???????????

Marching Membership
BRASS LINE: 30
PERCUSSION: 14
GUARD: 19
TOTAL: 65

2003 Contesting Season Noteable Results
DCUK Finals - Runners Up
DCUK Leicester - Winners
DCUK Grantham - Winners
DCUK Warrington - Runners Up
DCUK Bristol - Runners Up
DCUK Prelims - Runners Up
BYBA Soundswell - Winners

DCUK Section Wins
Brass ? 1
Percussion ? 3
Guard ? 5
OE Music ? 1
OE Visual ? 6
Overall Effect ? 1

BYBA Section Wins
Percussion - 3
Guard - 4
General Musical Effect - 1
General Visual Effect - 3