The Ball

Many thanks to Mr Pavey for being the Blog's man at the scene. He writes:

The Shiplake boys looked good – very good. Queen Anne’s School was the snowy setting for the Ballroom Dancing competition. The Oratory boys brought their best moves, but time and again the taps on the shoulder (that’s a good thing) were coming our way! The following highlights and results were recorded and hopefully bear a close resemblance to what happened!!


As the dancing kicked off for the evening the following boys were spotted at various times strutting their stuff - Harry Griffiths, Louis Miller-Bains, the Killer Alex Kallipetis, Oli MacLaurin, Tom Jones (who waived his normal appearance fee for the evening), Cameron Foster, Paul Vanner, George MacPhee, Zac Bigley, Cameron (not a hair out of place) Dempster, Charlie Foster, Charlie Simpson, Alex Kallipetis, Nick Arbuckle and James Shraga.

At the end of the Waltz fine performances saw Harry Griffiths and Cameron Foster moving with great grace with Cameron leading the way into the final.

In the Foxtrot – Louis Miller Bains, and Harry Griffiths were the last men standing - Louis went all the way to the final – so intimidated were the other couple by Louis’ move that they literally crumbled!!

In the Cha Cha Cha – Tom Jones, Harry Griffith, Zac Jones and Cameron Dempster sailed without concern into the semi-final with Zac and Harry going through to the final stages. As the tension mounted it was left to Zac Jones to dance for the trophy.

In the Jive – Oli MacLaurin, Henry Leroy, Tom Waldron, Zac Jones, Cameron Foster, Tom Jones, Harry Griffiths and Ben Cousins were all seen gliding like skaters on ice in the later stages of the competition. Tom Jones, whose legs can do truly remarkable things – was in total control as he moved through to the final. The only competition at this stage for Tom was Oli MacLaurin who had given up waiting for the tap on the shoulder and instead was simply cheating. Unfortunately for Oli his disgraceful antics were spotted by sharp eyed judges and he was removed by his shirt collar.

The low-profile award for the evening went to Nick Arbuckle, untroubled by the judges attentions he managed to prepare a super speech – his coolness and sophistication and appropriate gratitudes were well received by our hosts – of particular note was the line ‘he was glad he could be part of it’.



The Results



Waltz – for the first time in its history the trophy went to Cameron Foster who danced a lovely waltz, his partner matching his moves as well as his leg length.

The Foxtrot – Louis Miller Bains –the crowd could be heard chanting ‘Easy, Easy’ it really had been that one-sided in the final

The Cha Cha Cha – Alas went to the Oratory – we had to let them have some crumbs of comfort –it was good of them to come!

The Jive – Tom Jones won at a canter - he was simply awesome with what can only be described as ‘professional hands’.



Overall winners “Shiplake College”



What a night!