A PORTLAND couple won a top prize of meeting celebrity dance stars after entering an Echo competition.

It was a double celebration for Dawn Nicholson when she won a Strictly Come Dancing holiday break thanks to the Dorset Echo.

Not only was the grandmother a big fan of the hit BBC television show, but the break was at a Grade II-listed hotel near Chard in Somerset where she dreamed of visiting.

Dawn, 58, and her husband Kelvin, 60, of Underhill, enjoyed a four-night midweek break at the Warner Leisure Hotels’ Cricket St Thomas Hotel during which they met and had their photos taken with Strictly judge Len Goodman and dance professionals Darren Bennett and Lilia Kopylova.

“Highlight of the break was Len Goodman,” said Dawn. “He’s just a delight.

“He gave a question and answer session with guests and he was very down to earth and was very funny too. He was very charming to meet, as were Darren and Lilia when we had the photographs taken.”

She added: “We joined two of the dance classes, doing the cha-cha-cha and waltz, but we prefer to watch and enjoyed the dance showcase with Darren and Lilia and several other extremely good dancers.”

Dawn only decided to enter the Dorset Echo competition at the last moment as she was taking the papers to the recycle bin.

The question was ‘name a very famous dancer whose first name begins with G’, Dawn guessed Gene Kelly and ‘thought no more of it’ until she received a phonecall to say she had won.

Dawn was thrilled to win, especially as the family had been thinking of having a break at Cricket St Thomas next year to celebrate her birthday.

She added: “It was our first time away with Warner Leisure Hotels and the break was very nice with excellent food and lovely gardens to walk round at Cricket St Thomas.”

In an exclusive collaboration with BBC Worldwide, Warner Leisure Hotels, with 13 properties in the United Kingdom, have been holding a series of Strictly Come Dancing holidays with a total of 16 top names from the TV show. The breaks have now ended but will resume early next year after the BBC programme returns to TV screens this autumn.

For more information, visit warnerleisurehotels.co.uk