AN Ormeau Road teacher is hoping to ‘snare’ victory in an international contest to name the world’s best female drummer.

Kasey Peters, who has lived in the Ormeau area for 15 years after emigrating from California, is riding high on the leaderboard for the inaugural ‘Hit Like a Girl 2012’ competition, which allows entrants to upload videos of their drumming skills and gather votes.

School teacher Kasey, who also tutors young drummers in her spare time, is currently number seven in the contest – which features hundreds of entrants - and has until April 15 to gather more votes and hopefully claim the top spot on the leaderboard.

Speaking to the South Belfast News, Kasey described her own drumming style and her love of a musical medium more usually associated with long-haired men in tattered denims.

“My dad was a jazz drummer and that’s what inspired me to take it up,” she said.

“I use a bit of jazz style in my solo video that I uploaded for the competition, and so far, it seems to have gone down well with the voters. Some of the other girls on this are the heavily tattooed stereotype playing thrash metal solos but I wanted to keep it more focused. Don’t get me wrong, I can rock out with the best of them, but I wanted to show what I’m best at and it’s paid off so far.”

Supporters can make one vote per internet device and Kasey is hoping for her adopted home to get behind her and help her take the top spot.

“South Belfast was somewhere I just fell in love with when I arrived all those years ago – I just liked the lifestyle here so much that I decided to stay and make it my home. Hopefully I can get lots of locals behind me on this and help us show that ‘hitting like a girl’ is something to be proud of.”

To vote for Kasey visit www.hitlikeagirl2012/videos/kasey-peters.