At 73, Adelaide Tango Club president Roger Spence is the oldest person in SA to complete SACE this year

IT takes two to tango, but this man’s Year 12 achievments are all his own. Roger Spence became the state’s oldest SACE completer this year while also running a dance club.

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IT takes two to tango, but Roger Spence’s Year 12 achievements are all his own.

The Forestville man, 73, the longtime president of the Adelaide Tango Club, is the oldest person in the state to gain his SACE this year.

He achieved an impressive Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank of 90 and hopes to begin a science degree at Flinders University next year with a physics major.

Roger Spence with partner Dru Evans. At 73, Roger is the oldest in the state to complete the SACE this year. Picture: Calum Robertson

The Advertiser first met Mr Spence in 2014, when he took his mathematical studies exam almost 50 years after he missed his UK “A-level” maths exam as a teen in 1965 because he turned up at the wrong time.

Over the past three years he has also done two more SACE maths subjects, IT, and had two cracks at physics, improving his original B- to a B+ this year.

“I’m a little bit disappointed in myself because I’ve got to improve my ability to do exams,” he says modestly.

“I know I’ve changed a bit since I’ve been studying. I’m definitely more disciplined.”

The retiree took classes at Hamilton Secondary and Marden Senior colleges, while making time for regular bridge and tango club commitments.

“You dance totally to the music as it is. Your partner doesn’t know what you are doing one minute to the next. You lead and she follows,” he says of his tango passion.

After Mr Spence’s exam mishap in 1965, he “spat the dummy” and starting saving for a trip to Australia. He ended up working as a meteorological observer and aircraft refueller on Manus Island, before a fuel explosion burned 60 per cent of his body.

He returned to the mainland, moved to Adelaide in 1972 and switched careers, eventually running the national help desk for Beaumont Tiles.