Dordrecht, The Netherlands -- The Netherlands' Jubal corps topped the open class of the second Drum Corps Europe contest of the 2003 season. Jubal scored 66.0 points, 5.5 points ahead of runner-up Juliana from Middelburg (also from the Netherlands). The nine participating corps performed for a sold-out crowd and received great response from the enthusiastic audience.

Jubal performs in Dodrecht.
Five corps entered the open class competition. Although Jubal stayed ahead of its competitors, Juliana came very close in some captions, resulting in a tie in marching performance. Jubal came with a much improved show compared to the their performance in Assen at the Open Dutch Showcorps Championships, earlier this year in Assen, the Netherlands. The corps has a very original repertoire (classic combined with jazz) and the members know how to perform this. Jubal is still one of Europe's great entertainers. Juliana from Middelburg, the Netherlands, surprised everyone with an energetic show. Unfortunately they have a small brass section this year, but it's amazing what this corps can do with only 14 horns. Their percussion section is strong, and Juliana came as close as one-tenth behind Jubal in percussion performance. The corps earned second place with 60.5 (0.8 penalties). Federatieband from The Hague are "the new kids on the block" in the drum corps competition. They changed to the drum corps style only a few years ago and have grown a lot since then. Federatieband won the first DCE contest on May 24 in Sas van Gent (Jubal and Juliana weren't present at that show) and ended third in Dordrecht. They are working on setting up a color guard section in the future, which would be a big step forward for them. Overall they put on a good show, featuring drum corps classics like "A Mis Abuelos" and "Dindi." They earned third place with a 56.3. Showband Jong-Holland from Zwijndrecht made a good impression with their new look at their first appearance at a Drum Corps Europe contest. They still need some cleaning work on some points, but the music and visual books are highly entertaining. Jong-Holland scored big on visual effect (a tie with Juliana). The corps earned fourth place with a 49.9. DIO from Dordrecht did a hometown performance tonight. They have come a long way and are back in the competition since last year. DIO performs a Spanish show, including "Malaguena." DIO earned fifth place (36.3). In the A-Class category, JFB from The Hague came in first (52.0). They brought the 1970s back on the field with a "Saturday Night Fever"-themed show, featuring songs like "Disco Inferno" and "How Deep is Your Love." The audience loved the performance (and the very excentric drum major). Second place went to Showband 75 (41.5). This corps, from Leidschendam, the Netherlands, took the percussion caption and came close in visual effect with their show entitled "Flavours of Music." One corps entered the cadet class tonight: Jong-Holland Junioren. Their show, with recognizable songs like "What a Feeling" and "Falling in Love," received 44.6 points from the judges. They did a very good job. Another cadet corps, Jong Jubal, performed in exhibition. Photos, scores and the recap can be found on the DCE Web site. Tickets for the DCE Championships, to be held in The Hague, the Netherlands, on September 27, can be ordered through the DCE Web site. More than 20 corps from Germany, The Netherlands and The United Kingdom will perform in the Zuiderpark Stadium for the DCE Championships.