MEN’S artistic head coach Anthony Wise says South Essex Gymnastics Club’s British Team title has signalled a true changing of the guard in the club’s proud history.

A team of captain Danny Crouch, George Atkins, Alex Niscoveanu, Jamie Langridge, Finnley Dunning and Sean Dalton became national champions in Leicester and brought home the prestigious Williams Trophy.

And Wise, who was himself a part of the last South Essex team to win the title in 2008, admitted it was another special day for the club.

He said: “I am very proud of the boys as this was the first time we have won this since a team which consisted of our now double Olympic champion Max Whitlock, Olympian Brinn Bevan, myself, Andrew Tucker, who is now assistant head men’s coach, and Joseph Ben-Aderet, who is now a club trustee.

“So this team title is something that is very important to myself and the whole of the men’s programme.

“And I hope that in 10 years’ time this new generation are still involved at South Essex in some form – as our team from 2008 is still now.”

The format of the team competition is 6-5-4, which means there are six gymnasts in a team, five competing on each piece, and with the four highest scores on each of the six pieces added together to make the final team score.

Wise added: “Our two individual All-Around British champions, Danny and George, plus Alex – who was third in the All-Around at the British – were up on all six pieces, which gave us three very strong scores on every piece.

“Danny went clean on the first five apparatus but missed his big release and catch element on the final piece, high bar.

“Danny confidently got back up, however, and repeated the release move and performed it perfectly, and went through the rest of his routine with ease – which was essential for the team’s score.

“George was an absolute rock for the team and had a pretty much perfect competition, hitting six beautiful routines.

“Alex struggled on pommel and put his hands down on his parallel bar dismount but he gave awesome performances on the other four apparatus. Although he fell on pommel and parallel bar, his scores were still so high they counted towards the team’s final score.

“Between Jamie, Finnley and Sean we needed our fourth big score on each piece but they all did fantastically well.”