Stockport Jennetts

My sister Ali and I have lived near Wem all of our lives and every year have visited or partook in the processions. We know that it's always a great day out. You make think it's just another Carnival but think again, I've never been to another town where the Carnival is even half as good as Wem.

We've both been dancing for 19 years, but this is our first year with Stockport Jennetts. They are a faboulous troupe that have made us both feel so very welcome, so we asked the Jennetts if they fancied taking part in Wem carnival this year. We knew it was a long journey for them, but it would be worth it. We warned them that it would be a long day as there are two processions, one at lunch time and one in the evening, in the dark!! We also told them that it would be a great day out, but I don't think they knew what to expect ...... Lets take a look ....

We had to have some music for the parades so here we are getting the car ready, of course it had to match in with our colours.

As my sister Ali and I asked the troupe if they'd come and take part we decided to get everyone a small thank you gesture.

We presented every girl with a medal that they wore around their neck during the processions, these can be seen on the pictures below of the parade.

Here is a close up.

Medals and centers were from LMC.

The afternoon parade started around 1pm. It takes about an hour to walk round the streets that were filled with people. There wasn't quite as many people this year watching the afternoon parade, I expect this is because it had been raining all morning. We were lucky though, it only rained for about five minutes whilst we were on parade but all the girls kept smiling.

This was the serious parade. We went out to prove that we were a good dance troupe, and hoped that we would stand out from everyone else. We used one of our fancy armworks which meant that each line of girls would swing up in the air at different times, and then the front girls would wait behind their backs for the back girls to finish.

Below are some pictures.

Here we are just before starting the parade.

I think we should keep Danielle and Ali apart, they look like they could be trouble!!!

Here's Steve our music man / car driver with us following behind.

A small selection of the many pictures that our camera man, Danny took for us.

Don't we look good!!!

After the parade everyone was shattered. It was straight to the bar to get a drink and relax.

Above, left, Danielle and Ali, two of our Seniors and also our cheeky monkeys of the troupe, but I think you can tell that from the picture!!

Above, right, Lindsey and Lauren, also two of our Senior girls. You're just tooooo brown after that holiday Linds!!

Does anyone else get the impression that Stockport Jennetts don't like having their pictures taken??? (And you all thought they wouldn't make it onto the website)

After a few drinks it was then time to practice what we were going to do in the evening parade. We had just over two hours to go and hadn't decided what we were doing yet! How un-organsied are we? Here we are deciding, and Jenny's looking stressed cos we don't know what we're doing!!

Now it was time to relax again, so onto the fair for us.

Cheryl lost her shoes, Rose got squashed, and we all came off with many brusies!!

Here we are on the Waltzers, we thought they were meant to spin fast, but Charlie's, Danielle's and mine (number 9) hardly spun at all!!

Don't know about the rest of you girls yet, but Ali has just phoned me and she is as stiff and aching as I am. I couldn't talk to her for long as she kept making me laugh and it was hurting my stomach too much!!! That last ride we all went on was deffientely a killer, and I don't even have any pictures!! Sack the camera man!!

This was the best parade of the day that everyone had been looking forwards to. The parade started at about 8pm so by this time it had started to go dark.

We decided to have a change of costume for the evening parade as we wanted to do something fun. Jenny managed to find some old entertaining dresses that she had in her loft so we went along with these, even though some of the older girls dresses were a bit on the "should you really be wearing that" short side!!! However, we thought this would add to the fun aspect and the crowd would defientely be pleased!!

As it would be dark this meant we had to illuminate ourselves. I went out and bought about 300 glosticks to make sure we were going to stand out. We also had our secret weapons that we've had flown in from America!!!! Unfortunately we only have a couple of pictures to put on the website as all of the others have our secret weapons in them. So watch this space!!! Currently these and the one in the Winners section are the only pictures of our very short dresses.

Stef getting a lift up to the start of the evening parade. If you haven't already guessed she's the Glamour Girl of the troupe. I like the number plate!!!

Danielle having fun with the glosticks after the parade. I know you like your big earings but I think that's a bit over the top!!

Once we've been to the Championships in October I'll be able to put the pictures on, it's just that we want to keep our secret weapons a secret until we've used them at the Championships!!

So if you were at the carnival ssshhhhhhhh

Whilst we were partaking in the parades there were many judges hiding in the crowds of people to choose the winners for each of the sections that were taking part. We were to be judges in the "Dance Troupe" section along with four other troupes. However, they only actually choose a first place, and we knew that we'd have to work hard for it.

We'd all had a brilliant day out and to us it didn't really matter if we won or not, but then the results were given ..........

And guess what, we won

THE STOCKPORT JENNETTS

BEST TROUPE ON PARADE

WEM CARNIVAL 2006

A big well done to everyone, you deserved it girls

Below is a picture of me collecting our trophy, a wooden shield which we'll have to get engraved.

Winning was the perfect ending to a great day out.

This year a lot of our girls were unable to partake in the parade for two reasons, 1 many of them were on holiday and 2 as they didn't know what to expect they only brought down a mini bus full of girls. However, everyone that attended had a thoroughly enjoyable day and hopes that we get invited back again next year.

If we are lucky enough to be invited again, we would love to take all of the girls, so we'll need to get a full size bus for everyone, and don't forget girls keep the first Saturday of September free next year otherwise you'll miss out on a brilliant day out.

I think we should start coming up with some ideas, as it's going to take a lot to beat our performance this year!!