Firing last on the night were Ground Force. They started
with something completely different, four conic fountains
arranged on rotating platforms. This was a nice twist and
gave an otherwise static ground-based firework an interesting
boost. From our position behind the firers we did not get
a great view, but the spectators should have seen this reflected
in the water. While these were still spinning, spinning
screeching tops were fired then the display moved into a
section of comets, bangs and colour.
The pace then picked up further with a sequence of bigger
bangs, crackles and more nice coloured effects. Lovely green,
blue and purple was evident here. Some confusion followed
at this point with a great deal of shouting, I thought something
had gone wrong or there had been an injury (we learned later
it was a team member shouting to another one!), this ended
with the launch of a big rocket and then complete silence
as the focus shifted back to ground level for another imaginative
fountain set piece. Here the fountains were arranged on
rockers and swung in one direction then the other. Brilliant
blue shell effects were fired overhead.
- Click on any picture to enlarge it -
With the fountains finished, pretty crossette effects followed,
cycling through many shades of nice colours (pictured in
the big shot at the top of the page and the images below)
and glitter, supported towards the end of the sequence with
silver comets from the ground.
Following this was another nice firework, launching a salvo
of shots and ending with various effects such as colours,
fish or crackles (shown below).
Multiple gold brocade effects now took over but the gathering
pace was momentarily stopped dead by a six second gap and
the audience started to cheer, thinking it was over. They
were soon proved wrong and a pretty layered effect restarted
the action with twinkling at the bottom and bright blue,
gold and yellow effects at the top.
The pace suddenly went into overdrive with a rapid assault
of blue and yellow. Two rockets with nice trails bisected
the firing area to dissolve quietly above, leaving hanging
gold glitter. Some remaining blue and yellow effects continued
for a short while, and then it really was all over.
Well done to Ground Force for a superb display and for
being the only team to use an imaginative set piece, I'm
sure that has given many teams food for thought!
