It seemed like we were fresh back from the summer break and almost straight back into competitions, starting with the Alpha Factor.

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Just 3 weeks after the Bill Slater it was the beginning of July and of course the British Championships. As usual the competition ran over 3 days with the Espoirs competing on Friday with apparatus finals on Sunday.

Jessica competed in round two alongside many of her national Espoir squad team mates. Abi Kirby and Laura Jones competed in round one and at the end of that round Laura was in the lead, with Abi in second place.

Jessica started her competition on beam with a couple of wobbles and a score of 8 dead, which was enough to earn her a place in apparatus finals. From there she moved to floor and her new routine to the tune of “Eyes Like Yours”, which she chose after listening to loads of samples. The routine is great and, as usual, contains unique choreography well suited to her style. Next up was vault where she competed a straight Yurchenko. Finally she moved to bars where unfortunately she uncharacteristically missed her Jager, which was a shame because until that point she was one of the few gymnasts going clean. The fall cost her dearly and she finished the competition in 10^th place.

Saturday was of course a day of watching the Juniors and Seniors, before coming back on Sunday for apparatus finals. Having made beam final she would not compete until the final rotation. She went clean on beam, though suffered some wobbles and finished in 6th place. Everyone enjoyed the 3 days and saw some great gymnastics. We would like to thank the WSG coaching team for their hard work both preparing Jessica for and then during the competition. Photos from the British and other recent competitions are in the 2005 photo gallery. A report in the Swindon Advertiser is here.

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It seemed a long time since we last travelled to Newcastle for a competition but Friday 17^th June saw Jessica and the rest of the WSG team trekking north for the 2005 Bill Slater Team Championships. 26 teams, over 150 gymnasts and some great gymnastics were to engross everyone as the competition unfolded.

Wiltshire competed in the first round with warm-up at 9:30 on Saturday morning.  At the end of their competition team WSG was in first place with Liverpool just 0.225 points behind but there then followed an agonising wait while the other twenty-one teams took to the apparatus over the remaining 5 rounds. As the scores from each rotation were posted, the Wiltshire score remained stubbornly unassailable and at the end of day one they were still on top spot with Liverpool still in second place.

On Sunday the remaining 12 teams served up more gymnastic delights over the remaining 3 rounds and the tension began to mount. At the end of round 4 Jessica and her team were still sitting pretty, then round 5 came and went with no change at the top.

Finally it was the warm up for the 6th and final round with teams from Huntingdon, City of Newcastle, South Durham and Colchester all vying for that top spot. Huntingdon were clearly a team to watch and started on vault, posting a score about 0.8 higher than Jessica’s team. On bars the position reversed putting Wiltshire back in front by 0.7. Beam followed and Wiltshire’s lead increased slightly, meaning that it would go right to the wire on floor. The atmosphere was electric with heads busy doing the sums and then, as usual, the scores from the final rotation were not displayed and we had to wait for the final outcome until the medal ceremony commenced. When Mike Moore’s voice echoed across the arena it was with the words, “In first place with a score of 126 dead, WILTSHIRE!”

May saw Jessica begin her preparation for the June Bill Slater Team Championships and of course for the July British Championships with a couple of outings to Plymouth and to Poole from which she gathered some nice pictures for her 2005 photo gallery.