Lancers History

Position:

BYBA Division 3 FINALS - Champions
BYBA Division 3 League - Champions

Music:
Excerpts from the stage show

Drum Major(s):
Sean O`Neil & ADM Rosie Barrett

There were many reasons of why this had happened; outside influences had pushed the organisation in a direction that was not necessarily in the Corps best interest. This had seen the rehearsal schedule become so intense in the pursuit of excellence that the main reason for doing it enjoyment was being lost. At the same time large open age units had been given the green light to compete in both DCUK & BYBA for 2007 and the reverberations of this would be felt by Lancers more than most as members were tempted by the promise of bigger and better things, although the majority of those that left to follow this course never ended up marching with those units they were lost to the activity along with the ones that literally just hung up their marching shoes!

However with any adversity comes opportunity and that was the opportunity to get back the spirit of the Corps, get back to having fun, get back to what really matters and that is to providing a wonderful and enjoyable activity for our members and that’s exactly what we set about doing.

The staff team was smaller than in previous years and some long serving senior members were promoted onto the team to help take the Corps forward in the year ahead and by the new year a new Corps evenly split between the third of the Corps that had stuck it out from the previous year to numerous new members from our recruitment drive and moving up from our Academy.

Decisions were made on the direction for the year and part of that was to withdraw from the DCUK competitive season with the onus now so heavily biased to the open age activity and small crowds in favour of a full return to BYBA in Division Three and a circuit that had developed and improved greatly over the previous couple of years and the promise of better competition and much larger crowds.

The Corps media machine kept deliberately quite over the winter months with the organisations website not being updated whilst a new corporate website was being developed in the back ground which was launched for the second half of the season, this just added to the speculation that we was not to be coming out in 2007 or would just be making up the numbers.

The first outing of the year after our own winter showcase was at the Midlands Region Concert was an understandably nervous performance was aired of our still incomplete “Fiddler on the Roof” production.

By the time the 2007 was starting we felt that we had both a wonderful musical & visual book but knew that we struggle early season on execution but come good second half; so it came as a bit of a surprise that the Corps won its first competition in early June which consisted of the early pacesetters and league leaders.

From there we re-evaluated our expectations and the confidence of the members blossomed and a belief after the tough winter started to seep back into the whole organisation. After that continual improvement week to week and month to month followed with The Lancers winning all but one show leading up to the last league competition of the season.

Lying in second place the Corps had to finish higher that their nearest rivals Ibstock Scouts by 15 points in a class of 12 bands to secure the league title and go into Finals as number one seeds. An amazing performance saw us win the show by more than enough points to take the league title but there was still two weeks til the British Finals and all to play for with so many times in recent years Lancers coming runner up at a major Finals.

The day of the BYBA British Championship Finals came round soon enough and the members took to the field knowing that they had to pull out all the stops to hold off a stiff challenge from the rest of the field. An army of supporters travelled down to the Butts Park Arena in Coventry to join a large crowd. They were not to be disappointed as The Lancers performed their "Fiddler on the Roof" in spectacular style to an appreciative audience.

The tension then built as the awards were announced with the Lancers taking, Best Musical Effect, Visual Effect, Percussion & Colour Guard (dance) with the Brass missing out on taking their section too by a fraction. In the end the tension was broken as the Corps was announced as Champions with a score of 810 out of a 1000 (81.0) which was enough to hold off the challenge of some fine bands.

The Corps then marched off the arena though a guard of honour from all the other bands lining up and clapping, which we really appreciated! This was then followed by a Champions repeat performance back on the arena, which was just a fantastic finale of our 2007 show where everyone just left it out on the field.

So a season that had started with so much trepidation & concern had concluded with the Corps finally winning a BYBA Title and deservedly so...............................................

Marching Membership
BRASS: 18
PERCUSSION: 14
GUARD: 6
TOTAL: 40

2007 Contesting Season Noteable Results
BYBA Finals - Champions
BYBA League - Champions
BYBA Nothern Star - Winners
BYBA Academy Magic - Winners
BYBA Somer Sounds - Runners Up
BYBA Brass Explosion - Winners
BYBA Midlands Impact - Winners