SOME of East Lancashire’s brightest dance prospects rubbed shoulders with the stars after being invited to appear on a BBC quiz show.

Bacup’s Pioneers senior cheerleading squad was chosen by A Question Of Sport to perform for an episode in its current series which featured Olympic medallists Louis Smith and Anthony Ogogo.

The girls had just one week to learn a 30-second routine used to introduce Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell during the Captains’ Challenge.

A team of eight girls, led by head coach Fayhe-Louise Mitchell, travelled to the Media City studio in Salford to record the episode.

Miss Mitchell said it was a great experience for the team, who are all aged 17 to 22.

She said: “It was great to meet everyone although some of the girls were a bit embarrassed as we weren’t sure who was who at first!

“It’s really good practice for us to perform in a huge studio with the lights and cameras and everyone seemed impressed.

“We had 15 minutes to warm-up on the set before they began to film four of the shows, the first of which we were lucky enough to sit in the audience for.

“We also spotted Rossendale comedian Ted Robbins who was warming up the audience before the cameras started to roll.”

Among the celebrities the girls met backstage were the show’s host Sue Barker, former British tennis number one Andrew Castle and Football Focus presenter Dan Walker. The episode is due to be broadcast in the next few weeks.