BASINGSTOKE Ice Skating Club won their first National Team Challenge since 1999 at Lee Valley.

The local club had several individual winners, as well as winning two team categories - the synchronized skating category and the show number.

Basingstoke needed strong nerves in a tense finish. Going into the last event, they were one point behind Alexandra Palace and needed a good performance in the show number to secure the overall win.

Basingstoke's team of 28 skaters per-formed the Barnum and Bailey routine choreographed by Anita Curtis (front right in picture) and Louise Donaldson (front left), both coaches at the Planet Ice Silver Drome.

The routine was based on a circus number performed last December in the Christmas Extravaganza on Ice.

The team skated last and received out-standing marks, including two perfect sixes from the seven judges, and they proved enough to take the team challenge title.

Earlier in the contest, there were individual wins for Laura Webb, in the level-five girls' figure skating, and Annabel Colenutt, in the level-eight girls' figure skating.

Elizabeth Harris was second in the level-three figure skating, while Charles Howard-Jones and Fiona Piggott were each third, in the level-seven boys' figure skating and the solo exhibition respectively.

Lynsey Horsfield and Jade Whitlock finished fourth in the group exhibition and Victoria Heath-Smith was fifth in the solo free dance.

The winning synchronized skating team was made up of Helen Clark, Catie Fisk, Victoria Heath-Smith, Elizabeth Long, Imogen Martin, Fiona Piggott, Rachel Powell, Amy Sanders, Rebecca Strachan, Rebecca Tincey, Victoria van der Gucht and Laura Webb.

The final result was Basingstoke 78 points, Alexandra Palace 71, Bracknell 69, Chelmsford 68, Montem (Slough) 63.5, Gosport 60, Isle of Wight 52, Guildford 52, Streatham 49 and Oxford 35.