Marching on

The gloves were on and sparkling clean, the boots and hats were all in perfect order and the salutes were sharp at ILT Stadium Southland yesterday for the first day of the New Zealand National Marching Championships.

Teams the Blue Jay Southland U13s, the Rotorua Madison Blues U13s and the Royal Empire Guards of Canterbury all competed to the cheers of a happy and vocal audience.

The qualifying marches started yesterday morning with the masters and U13 grades, followed by the U18 and senior grades in the afternoon.

The U13 and U18 grades will battle it out in the plate march from 9 o’clock this morning.

The championship march finals will take place at 1pm and the competition will finish with the senior grade division later this afternoon.