In looking at the latest scoring trends, it appears Carolina Crown are dropping and Santa Clara is moving up. And the Troopers are raising their chances of being in finals. Maybe Carolina's kids are still sick? Or they "peaked too soon" as my Dad used to say.

Phantom was the king of that in the early 70s. They would come out way ahead of everyone else, but they couldn't sustain it throughout the season. Belleville used to be the same way in earlier days.

Then there were the corps that reversed that trend, namely the Kilties and the 27th Lancers. They never seemed to be ready at the start of the season (often 10 or more points down from the lead), then made late season surges (Kilties in 64 and 68). In fact, the only time 27th was close to ready was 1980 - because they kept their entire show from 1979! And it turned out they were ready a little too early, as they beat Devs at DCI East but couldn't sustain it another week, ending up second at finals in Birmingham.

Anyone remember any other corps who had predictable scoring patterns throughout a season?

What did you do in the Corps? Snare, Drum Major, Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Good point Bob. I remember that Phantom and Belleville would come out strong in the early season, but seemed to peak early. Kilts were really odd ... they were barely alive early on but would come on really strong late!

Most corps would improve through the season, but their program content limited their growth. And, some corps just never seemed to improve ... they just stayed at the bottom!

Then, as now, a quality program and a quality staff were important. Or course, hard work always was needed for improvement.

When I saw the Vanguard my sense was that two Bay Area corps could end up in the one and two spots. With Santa Clara's rate of improvement that could happen. The Blue Devils seem to be maintaining about a 1.5 point lead over what ever corps finishes in second. So they are able to clean their show enough to kept up with the improvements of the corps below them.

I went out last weekend and bought the DCI internet feature where I can download performances so I've been able to see corps like Carolina, Cavaliers, Garfield and Phantom Regiment, etc. It's also pretty neat because on can access shows of the top 12 in each year all the way back to 1976.

I'm not impressed by Carolina or the Phantom Regiment. Actually the Cadets music score is almost a retread of two shows from the 80s and 90s and more traditional than the garbage they've been playing the past few seasons. Cavaliers are good but boring as usual. It would be interesting to know what happened to the Phantom Regiment coming off their 0.015 point win at DCI. My guess is they might end up in 8th place at best.

Last night's results are interesting. Crown is back up, and they're starting to open the gaps between corps. Phantom also rose a place, and Troopers are still in the top 12. But Blue Stars took a tumble (not surprising).

And here's a weird fact - four of the top 12 corps have Blue in their name (Devils, Stars, Knights, Coats).

I still think Crown could rise to second, or Holy Name take the whole thing, because DCI loves anniversaries (Madison 1988). But the spreading of the gaps shows DCI's current thinking.

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arrnager

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

And things continue to heat up! Last night:

Carolina Crown 94.1
Cavaliers 94.05
Holy Name 94.00

Which begs the question: when judging is so subjective and there are no ticks, how can corps be that close?

And Santa Clara's score (although at a different show) was over 95. Finals week is looking very exciting! I don't follow the corps - don't care much for the shows - but it's fun watching the scores!

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arrnager

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Bob, looking at the recaps is even more interesting. BTW, I think it is BECAUSE the scoring is subjective that the corps scores are so close.

I'm the same way Bob.It's interesting watching the
how the scoring is going.There's movement upwards
with some corps that started out slow but are
showing improvement as the season moves toward the
end.Even though I'm not follower of DCI as I have
always been it'll be interesting in August to see
what happens in Indy.

What did you do in the Corps? French Horn

What years were you a Corps member? !957 thru 1963