A POPULAR centre for people with learning disabilities put on its own Strictly Come Dancing show last week, six months after it looked destined to fold.

About 60 members of Tanglewood Club watched as seven glamourous couples took to the dance floor in front of the Mayor and Mayoress of Harrow, who judged the event.

In June last year, however, it looked as though special nights like this would become a thing of the past when volunteers learned their 30-year home at the Brember Centre was earmarked for closure.

The Observer stepped in to find a new base for the much loved club, and within weeks Harrow Borough Football Club came to the rescue, allowing members to use their club house at Earlsmead in South Harrow.

And to celebrate a successful six months at their new home, Geoff Havard and wife Julie, who were both awarded MBEs for their work with adults with learning disabilities and have been running the club for nearly 40 years, put on the big night.

Dancers Karen and Syed, Kamini and Rakesh, Michele and Michael, Noreen and Kevin, Emma and Charles, Debbie and Christopher and Kavitha and Robin did their best to wow the judges with their own interpretation of Latino and ballroom classics.

Despite a competitive run of close scores, the outright winners were Debbie Brice and Christopher Sullivan, who impressed mayor Councillor Eric Silver, his wife Evelyn and head judge Jackie Howard, a volunteer at the centre, to earn an impressive score of 25.

There was a dance-off for second place which was won by Emma Wilkinson and Charles Bodden.

After the successful show Mr Silver said: "The Tanglewood Club does a great job of supporting some of our more vulnerable residents and this show was a credit to them. Geoff Havard played a great role in organising it.

"The standard of performance was amazingly high and everybody enjoyed it - perhaps we should call our show Strictly Tanglewood Dancing ."

The club has more than 100 members and meets once a week at its new home in South Harrow.