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The Saturday night show started out with Pro Drop (Luke Burrage and two randoms). Starting a show with a passing routine is always a good way to gain points. (+1) And this was a really good passing routine with cool stealing and really stylish twiddly bits (+1). I liked it a lot. But it was droppy (particularly one of the randoms) and stuff that should have worked and looked amazing just barely scraped by (-1). It was also quite nice to see Luke on stage with other people and managing not to upstage them/patronize them. (+1)
[Edit: Apologies to everyone I've narked with the 'randoms' comment. I don't get out much.]

Tiff did his cool Tiff Plus Personality routine which I was looking forward to seeing again (+1). I thought he coped really very well with using up all the available space and making himself look big (+1) but his white balls did tend to merge into the background (-1). They may be his performance balls but they were quite possibly a bad choice. Bonus points for the arse scratching again (+1), but could have tried harder with the costume. He looked incredibly scruffy out there (-1).

Leo & Yam did possibly the best aerial stuff I’ve ever seen (+1). It was way cool, innit? Really insanely good, sleek, fluid moves and at times they looked like they were just floating in midair. Oohs and ahhs escaped me in good measure (+1). The woman had huge boobs for an aerial girl too (+1). My only real irritation was the fact that, up in our hella cool private box, my view of what was going on at the top of the rope was slightly obscured by the lighting rig. But if I’d have sat where I was supposed to be sat I wouldn’t have had the problem. No points lost for that one.

Jacob Sharpe did diabolo. Well. It was just a consummately professional and slick act (+1). Well measured and with the right balance of silly-good tricks and cheesy posing in a waistcoat (+1). His droppiness later on in the act made it seem a tad over-long (-1) but he pulled off a couple of nice saves. Held, sir.

Senmaru was the most bizarre thing ever. He was fantasticly talented, and evoked racist laughter and applause with the greatest of ease (+1). Points for coolness of tricks, wittiness of banter, cute stereotypical accent and rapport with the audience (+1). Utterly superb. I want him again.

After the break Donald Grant gained a point for his Shepherd’s Poi gag (+1), but managed to lose it again after the show when Alby pointed out that with a pound of beef mince, it should really have been Cottage Poi (-1). Never mind though.

Peter Irish was hilarious with his slightly gay jigging about the stage (+1). His poor choice of shorts, bearing nobbly man knees spoilt things a bit for me (-1) but his mad magnetic feet pretty much won me over (+1). The act was possibly a tad over-long for my liking. I found that whilst every trick I saw was very cool, I was fazing in and out a bit with it all (-1).

Lorenzo achieved the impossible and made me sit and enjoy a hat act (+1). I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen his particular brand of comedy hat before and I’m big enough to admit to liking it. I couldn’t say whether it was the most technical hat stuff I’ve ever watched before, but it was certainly the most inspiring (+1). To be honest, Lorenzo had won me over to him earlier on in the week when I saw him do a kewl trick in the hall and then look humble about it afterwards.

Maxlastic somehow managed to wangle himself a spot on stage within the bounds of decent act territory. To be fair to him, his act was 100% improved from the last time I saw it a few years ago (+1) but he was scarily shaky at times and the whole thing just went on too long and didn’t particularly entertain me (-1). I had expected to be writing something along the lines of ‘Max should never have been in the show and the bookers should have had the balls to tell him so’, but I don’t think that’s completely true. The audience seemed to enjoy the freakiness of it and I actually think he managed to hold his own. Almost literally.

Jacob and Nate Sharpe were really quite good. Their act had all the glitzy spit and polish of Jacob’s solo stuff but on a bigger scale (+1). I can’t fault them on their stage presence or technical ability, but I wonder whether I would have preferred my standard two diabolo acts of the night to be slightly different from each other. Not that it wasn’t great, but it was just the same stuff repeated. (-1)

Erik Borgman had a bad night, I think it’s fair to say. But being the forgiving, easy-going person I am I don’t want to mark him down for the fact that pretty much nothing worked for him because it was a prop thing, not an ability thing. I got the impression that the audience was impressed enough with the impressive stuff that he did pull off to grant him a bit more leeway with trying again on tricks that didn’t work and I wanted him to carry on attempting stuff, but he just carried on with the act regardless which, I thought was a bit of a shame (-1).

Erik’s act would have been a slightly flat way to end the show, but the encore was super cool and very funny and should be repeated often at other events (+1).

Dead chuffed with the whole thing, I were, and no mistakin’.

BJC Elevation scores +9

We got in line in a particularly timely fashion for this one, knowing that the big top was really just a bit too small for purpose. Front of the queue. Get in. I missed it, but I feel it’s worth mentioning that while we were stood there Norbi made a comment about me hating him. Which I don’t. And now I feel terrible. I’m giving him a (+1).

Rod helped out as Official Drop Counter and had to wade manically around the tent collecting money from people. It was noted that he did actually respond to the call ‘Rod!’

Ady started out with his Baby Bono character. It would appear from talking to a few people about it that I go against the grain when I say ‘nah’. Fair play to him for thinking about his character and running with it for the entirety of the act (+1), but I felt there was rather too much character stuff going on and not enough juggling (-1). The whole thing seemed generally more unpolished than last year and the false finish followed by a bizarre, out of character, big trick thing just confused me (-1). However, I may be wrong. Everyone else seemed to think the whole thing was consummately brilliant.

This was Harry Smith’s first time on stage and he managed quite well, I thought. Although he was evidently petrified beyond belief (I could smell the fear up on the top row) he’d obviously worked bloody hard on the routine and got through it all at a good steady rate, showing not a little skill (+1). He’d also managed to pick good music. But, of course, he needed to smile/develop a bit of personality. His only problem was the lack of stage experience which made his movements a bit jerky and rehearsed (-1). Breathe next time. Bonus points for the massive look of relief once he’d finished (+1).

Sarah Biskup rocked. She had much, much more style to her this year and managed to move across the stage and acknowledge the audience even though she obviously hated every second of it (+1). Once again there was some terribly decent juggling in there which she made look fantastically easy. A good mix of solid technical stuff and high energy moving-around-the-place. (+1) Bonus point for hilariously failing to find her way off the stage. (+1)

Ken Carlisle looked about 30. He’d made an obvious effort with costume and inevitable drops but he got truly flustered by a couple of big drops and tangles and ended up not doing himself any favours (-1). He had some good tricks though and was enormously cheesy. It smacked just a bit too much of variety show cabaret for my liking (-1).

Freddy Sheed impressed me, which I really didn’t want to happen. I hadn’t expected him to try anything other than stand in the middle of the stage and do hard stuff. But he’d actually thought about his act, so as well as being technically very good he was-at times-clever and funny too (+1). There were a few bits where he could have polished up his setting up for the next trick time and sorting out positioning on stage (-1) but other than that I thought he was pretty faultless. He certainly had the audience enthused (+1).

Garner screwed up royally by, again, being droppy and being affected by it (-1). But to give him credit, the stuff he did pull off was fluid and laid back in a good way (+1). His big exhaustive vertax stuff won him a lot of favour from the audience but even that didn’t save the act and he left the stage never having really pulled the whole thing off.

Reuben was another one on stage for the first time and stayed pretty much statue-still for the whole routine. Granted, it’s his style, but he was small and hurried and static in a way that I didn’t enjoy(-1). I felt like he needed to allow time for the audience to actually appreciate the stuff he was doing, which-to be fair-was very good and mostly above my head (+1), but he raced through everything without really playing to the audience (-1). Again, nothing that a bit more experience wouldn’t sort out, but I wasn’t impressed.

Nina Adams deserved credit for having the balls to enter BYJOTY with an act other than juggling or diabolo (+1). She had a costume and if being a young sexy thing counts as character she had one of those as well (+1). But she dropped like there was no tomorrow and couldn’t really claw the act back from that (-1). Points for trying, or is that just too condescending?

Luke Galloway was inspired by-but unfortunately for him-nowhere near as good as Jon Peat (-1). He’d sorted himself out with some good music to do his stuff to, but his stuff happened to be body moves which he made look clunky and awkward (-1). He snatched a lot at all the tricks he tried and at one point looked perturbed by the lack of clapping forthcoming. He had the nice idea of performing to all sides of the audience (+1), but it didn’t really make much difference in the end. Below par.

David Haslam did a spot of poor, nativity-play quality acting at the beginning of his routine which was completely pointless (-1). Having marginally succeeded in establishing a character with it he just failed to make any effort to develop it through his juggling (-1). Technically, his numbers stuff was good albeit droppy (+1), but he was nowhere near as good as I’ve seen him before. A poor showing that didn’t do him justice.

Matt Wright did devil stick, so again kudos for doing something other than juggling/diabolo (+1). He was apparently under the impression that a long coat and leather trousers = attitude (-1). He really needs to be disabused of the opinion soon. He had poor music but allowing his hard tricks to fail because of his costume just smacked of poor planning. (-1) Nothing inspiring.

I started off feeling really sorry for Luke Hallgarten because he was having to contend with playing second fiddle to Tom and getting heckled. But I gave up quite quickly because of the entirely professional way he handled it all (+1). He didn’t let it faze him and managed to get the audience back on track. This was by far the best effort at an ‘act’ all night (+1) but he also managed to cram quite a few really good tricks in there (+1). I was very, very impressed with him.

Jon Booth was very entertaining and had great stage presence (+1). He knows how to play up to an audience and is possibly the boy the phrase ‘cocksure’ was invented for. Although I didn’t think his routine was as good as the one he performed last year (-1) (and I didn’t vote for him this time around) he was a big crowd pleaser again and kept me interested. Fair play to him.

Freddy cleaned up on the awards, which was pretty inevitable. He won Silver, Judges’ Choice, and BYJOTY none of which I have a problem with. Luke Hollgarten won Silver and the Lesticle convention prize (yey). Again, no problem there. Ady also won Silver, and I cannot for the life of my see why. Alright, so he had a character of sorts, but his act basically consisted of him flailing around on stage interspersed with a bit of ring juggling. Yeah? So what? It wasn’t a finished, polished act. It wasn’t professional. It wasn’t technically stunning. It wasn’t even particularly funny. And don’t get me wrong; I like Ady. I think he’s a cool kid and bags of talent, but he didn’t show himself to his best advantage and his act was average. I also have slight reservations about Reuben winning the Crawley convention prize, having seen how small and statue like he is, and how huge the Crawley stage is. A lot of work needs doing before August, methinks.

BYJOTY 2008 scores +4

I woke up at 6am feeling like I’d been asleep for a day and a half. Managed to doze on and off for a bit though for a couple of hours and eventually crawled out of bed at 8 to relieve my throbbing bladder. I played in the hall for the rest of the day.

Rod and I went to another of Ian’s 3 count passing workshops. I didn’t embarrass myself in this one but I did leave early again. But we had a good crack at hefts and I even managed a couple of other-hand twiddles while we were at it. A modicum of success.

We also investigated Alan’s box. It was roomy enough but a little stuffy for my tastes. Alan seems to feel at home in it though. While he was settling in I got down to some honest to goodness juggling. Got my all time ultimate never to be repeated 4 club record (117) and equalled my best at 4 clubs sync (18).

Once traders were open I took my clubs to Henry for a bit of a tune up. I was expecting to have to go through each one and identify the problems they all had and discuss whether or not it was worth the effort to fix. But I didn’t even open my mouth. The bloke just grabbed a bag, told me to put the clubs in it and write down my name, then said “2 hours.” I gaped in awe at him and grinned a bit and explained that I thought it’d take at least a day. He shrugged and said “3 hours”. I do so enjoy finding no-nonsense service.

I duly returned to Henry’s three hours later and was presented with an imaculate set of beautifully cleaned and polished clubs. New ends, nobs and tape and a good spit shine. I grinned like a big fat grinning machine and wandered around clutching them for a bit.

Alan and I didn’t manage anything amazing during the day. A couple of alright runs at stuff but nothing to write home about. We did, however, manage to make a fabulous effort at putting up Darren’s tent. I did the poles and the pegs and everything and not once did Pete have to run up to me and take it out of my hands and tut that I was doing it wrong/slowly/not as buffly as he could have done it. I was very proud of myself.

We lounged about in the bar in the evening again. Charlie’s humour amused, horrified and confused me all in equal measure, and my boobies got pointed at in a number of different manners. When I was starting to fall asleep we headed back to the hall and I found that one of my new pristene clubs had vanished. Scoured the hall for it for ages but couldn’t find it. Alby did offer to buy me a new one though which is nice of him. I wouldn’t have been so upset had it not been for the fact that it’d just come back all prettied up. Sigh. My first ever kit-disappearance at a convention.

Being upset did seem to improve our passing though. We managed our longest ever run of triple singles and got 7 on three count a lot more solid. Mini, Alan and Dave contrived to teach me a new three ball trick and I went off to bed feeling very pleased with myself. I was hoping that going to bed immediately after being ‘good’ with stuff would help it stick and I’d wake up in the morning and astound myself with my mad skillz.

We’ll have to wait and see, eh?

Oh, and Lilly told me that I was her favourite British girl. Even after I said that all European’s were dirty.

We had a fantastic morning, trying to get ourselves out of Leicester and into Doncaster. First stop was the cattery where Black Cat affected the most excrutiating look of despair and abandonment. I felt like such a bad mother. After a number of escape attempts and a fair bit of scrabbling we managed to get away and eventually found ourselves on the motorway.

On the motorway. In the middle lane. Going at a fair old pace. When Pete put his foot down and nothing happened. And as we were on a slight incline we ever so slowly ground to a halt. But Pete handled it all wonderfully, of course, and managed to get us onto the hard shoulder. Where we waited for 45 minutes for an AA man. In the drizzle. The highway patrol men stopped by while we were there just to reassure us that we were in “the safest place” and that they were going to train the camera on us. Which they didn’t. Scum. We didn’t even get picked up by a real AA man in the end either. Just some grizzled looking man in a van that had an AA approved sticker on it. He bodged it well though and we got to Donny in one piece.

Mini sorted us out with a bizarre parking spot round the back of the building. I was slightly concerned by the fact that the beer and renegade tents were only about five metres away from us. But we’re out of the driving rain and gusting winds, and most importantly we have an electric hook up which is just so incredibly nice I’m never going to want to be without one again. Which may make me a bit grumpy at Bungay, but I doubt it.

I managed to get stuck standing in a car park for two hours again. Funny that. But I got my very own Mr Bollocks for it, and later got the amusing story of how Pete had been requisitioned to drive to the station to pick up a man who wasn’t there. And then to the airport to pick up a man who, it later transpired, had made his own way to site. Poor Pee.

We faffed around a bit when Alby and the Germans turned up, trying to get them settled in the camp site/quagmire. In the middle of my running back and forth getting stuff together for them I passed Emily whose eyes leapt manically in my direction as she screamed in good harassed fashion “Are you looking for a job?!?!11′. Err, no, sorry. But you made me feel suitably bad. Then after a quick trip to Asda (which is all of a minute away) we got stuck into some sitting around in the hall. I proceeded to smile at/wave to/hug/greet/squeal at a number of people, and Alby and I tried juggling but gave up quite soon due to general ineptitude. There was supposed to be a ‘Welcome Show’ at 9 in the big top so we dutifully went over there a bit beforehand to scope it out. And found The Queue From Hell snaking round the beer tent. We joined. And waited. And waited. And waited for about 20 minutes before it started moving. But then everything went horribly horribly European and the queue disintegrated into a huddled mass. And there was pushing and eye gauging and name calling and everything. And by the time we got in there was no space left. But the people behind us didn’t believe it and kept cramming themselves in around us. It got very sweaty and irritating very quickly so we opted to leave before the show started. From the sounds of it we didn’t miss a great deal. I haven’t heard a single person so much as mention it yet.

I gave up on the day before the renegade started too. I think it was the custard creams that did me in. And the long lazy slouch in the jugglers’ bar upstairs where I managed to finally meet Lizzah’s other half. He didn’t say a single word. Just looked moody and cool at me. Which is fair enough. I don’t think she keeps him around for his conversational skillz. We also managed to find Jim who I last saw on my wedding day before he decided to bugger off around the world several times. And he’s much the same, except now a stinking student and beneath contempt. Still, it’s nice to find out what actually happened to him.

The van was marvellously warm after five minutes with the little fan heater on, and surprisingly quiet. I heard a delicate murmer of gentle, companionable conversation eminating from the beer tent before I drifted off to sleep for the night.

Very nice.