Readyfield Bloodhounds held their first team chase at Readyfield Farm, Caunton, Nr Newark on Sunday 16th November. It is good to see new events on the calendar and the course has potential for the future, the spectators had a good view of most of the course, with the facilities almost in the centre, the committee did a pretty fair job on the organisational side of the event considering it was their first attempt, however the course would benefit greatly from substantial ground lines on the hedges, more stuffing in the tops and bottoms and wider island fences, the open course incorporated some of the novice fences and especially the pen fence were far too small for the open horses and this led to bit of inconsistency as the hedge following the pen was fairly sizeable.
Five teams entered the open and first to go were the Forge Flyers, who are still without Sarah Bailey as Garth is still on the injury list, her place was taken once again by Louise Walker who had a crashing fall at fence 5 a very upright hedge. However Debbie Topping on Junior, Yvonne Goss on the ever youthful Perry who has literally not put a foot wrong all season and with Graham Smith bringing up the rear they put in another good round to finish in a time of 344.11seconds, Yvonne is hoping to run Perry in the Melton ride this week so she did not want to push him too hard.
Second to go the Four Players had all sorts of trouble at the hedge at fence five when all four stopped and after further stops at various fences around the course their chance had gone.
The Rough Necks having their first ride together also had problems at fence 5 when Leslie Illingworth went straight through it but after this hick up they continued to have a stylish round to finish in a time of 404.90 which eventually gave them fourth place.
The Hair Raisers and Only Fools and Horses found themselves with only two riders each so they amalgamated with Aly and Allen Brown from the Hair Raisers and Bryan Butterworth and Marc Howland from Only Fools and Horses, Aly Brown could not persuade her young horse to jump fence three which was a fairly large hedge early on the course but Allen had more luck with his new mount and ably assisted by Bryan and Marc they had a spirited round but could not catch the Forge finishing in a time of 379.64.which gave them third place
Last to go the Wasps set off at a cracking pace but an unfortunate fall by Martin Pateman between fences four and five left his grey horse to battle on riderless, he soon caught up the rest of the team and even jumped the pen correctly turning the 180 degree corner in fine style, however the loose horse, who finished the whole course only missing out the narrow island fences, was not making life easy for the rest of the team, without his interference they would most probably have beaten the Forge as they finished in a very respectable time of 351.23 seconds.
Twenty Six teams were entered in the Novice class, which was won by the Garden Giggles team of Rachael and Margaret Pitts, Cherise Greasly and Emily Sheffield, who had just over one second lead on the Power Pussies and Tom Cat team of Annette Hallam, Darren Watts, Alan Pacey and Christine Peters, with Norfolk n Chance team of Wendy Dunham, Elaine Hepworth, Sarah Hackney and Andrew Smith who had a super round until the last fence when they all stopped, in third place.
A fun class in the morning which attracted an entry of 19 teams against a bogey time was won by Fairview Mad Hatters with the Derby Daytrippers in 2nd and the Misfits 3rd.
Netty Nevill
|
