A TILT at the European ice dance title this week was polished up by final coaching in Basingstoke.

Local coach Alan Abretti, the man who choreographed the Robbie Williams skating video, was called in, along with his former Holiday On Ice partner, Karen Quinn, to supervise the final countdown to the competition in Bratislava.

Ukranian-born couple Natalia Gudina and Alexey Beletski are the Israeli number two pairing and their title challenge gets underway tomorrow.

It's the first time the pairing have tackled a major senior event but Gudina showed her pedigree by coming third at the junior world championships.

The pair have been together for two years but the Basingstoke connection was established only recently.

"It came through a friend of a friend," said Abretti. "They've improved.

They've worked very hard and their compulsory dance has really come on," he said.

Competition opens tomorrow with the compulsory dance and qualifiers go on to the original dance on Thursday and the free programme on Friday.