A full day of competition saw 108 teams entered in the three classes which kicked off with a 58 team entry novice fun event to a bogey time set at 5 minutes 50seconds, won jointly by the Heythrop Hunting Juniors team of Henry and Molly Lakin, Laura Kenny-Herbert and Alex Bullock and the Foxcote Flyers, one of the home teams of Tamara and Nina Vestey Saffron Idiens and Rachel King both teams stopping the clock in a time of 5mins 51s.

The Novice speed class which was also the final autumn event for the Total Recall accumulator attracted an entry of 25 teams and was won in fine style by the Teme Valley Tiggers, this win gave the all ladies team of Sarah Myhill, Helen Goodwin, Hannah Jordan and Nettie Higgins the fifteen points to clinch the accumulator title.

Second place went to Berkely ‘R’ Us, team of Vicky Meek, Simon Vatcher, John Riddiford and Polly Gundry just 4 seconds behind the Tiggers, In third were the Warwickshire Relics with Laura Grundy, Ben Way, Bay Watson and Edward Chamberlain.

Ben Way certainly had a superb day as he was also running with the Marston Misfits who finished in fourth place, Ben was brought into the team after Jo Manicom’s horse Pedro was injured at the Bicester, Jan Harrison riding Pollyana led the team which also consisted of Sally Main on Hobnob and Claire Pendelton on Jimmy, who took a heavy fall. This fourth position gave the Misfits eight points to put them in third place overall in the accumulator.

Thus the final placings in the Total Recall Accumulator were

An entry of 25 teams in the Open qualifier for the Goring Hotel National Championships meant that the organisers had to get every team away on time and some terrific organisation managed to get the last teams round before the light faded.

A new twisty section of the course from fences four to eight saw several fallers, especially over the fifth fence a pretty innocuous looking tiger trap at fence 5, which resulted in several teams having to retire.

Photograph Courtesy PCImages

The Bitch Pack led off by Jane Edmunds, set the pace with Tamara and Rosie Vestey giving one of their usual polished performances in second and third, they were joined by Stella Cronk from the Malt Mix Double Troubles taking the place of the injured Fiona Russell-Brown. The Bitch Pack are always a joy to watch and they certainly did not disappoint on this occasion, finishing in a time of 4m 40.15s. The Bentley Barmaids, Trish Dyson, Clare Bradley and Darren Watts once again with the able assistance of Ginny Sherwin, showed they fully deserved their recent qualification for the championships finishing in good form after being held up on the course for some time following a fall for the Kings Troop, but after a lot of feverish mathematical calculations they were awarded a time of 4mins 55.09s giving them a final 8th placing.

The Forge Flyers were 8th to go and with Junior and Debbie Topping leading off, Yvonne Goss- Perry, Joss Hanbury – Chappaqua, Graham Smith- Jack in there usual perfect formation they were really covering the ground until they became another team to lose a member at the notorious fence 5 when Graham and Jack fell, down to three members they could not afford any more mistakes and therefore did perhaps not cut the corners as quickly as they normally do, however they still finished in a fantastic time of 4mins 33.94, which was now the time to beat.

Rappell Hair Raisers II, Aly and Allen Brown, Mike Elvin and Tom Gittins completed one of their best rounds this season and even though they were some 20seconds off the pace they managed to book their ticket to the championships and a final placing of 7th.

The Generation Gap who competed in their first open together at the Bicester were unlucky not to have been in the top 8 placings, Katharine Tudor had a run out in the lead, four fences from home they lost Richard Beaman and Alistair Beedles horse finished with a nasty overreach. A time of 5mins 09.18s gave them 10th place just missing out on qualification for the championships.

Heather Moodie gave a super lead to the Odds and Sods team of Geoff Lockwood, Mickey Harris and Christine Watts and a good round gave them a finishing time of 4.m 45.86s and a well deserved 5th place.

The Ship or Bust team of Tony and Jo Pellett, Richard Hawker and Richard Evans finished in an excellent time of 4mins 56.70seconds which gave them a well deserved 9th place and the second qualification for the national championships.

The Joules Knightly Hatters and the Teme Valley Tigers were now perhaps the only teams left to make a serious challenge to the Forge Flyers. Ian Shipley took the Hatters off at a great pace with Stuart Morris and Andrew Shipley in hot pursuit they left Kirsty Davis a bit off the pace, but the boys seemed up on the clock until the final two fences from home when their horses, now having the worst of the going up the final hill, just ran out of a bit of steam.

It was now left to the Teme Valley, the all girl team of Sarah Myhill, Nicky Wenban, Angie Murphy and Sue Little were given a lot of vocal support as they gave one of their best efforts to date, they were all delighted when they crossed the finish line with many whoops and hollers and even though they had knocked just 0.08 seconds off the Hatters time they were still 6 seconds behind the Forge, so once again the Forge were victorious, but there are now several teams knocking on the door and the build up to the 2005 championships should be extremely exciting.

All credit to the terrific team at the Cotswold for providing such a superb event, it is great on a chilly day to watch all the action in the hospitality or guest marquees with the addition of the plasma screens and the Total Recall coverage of the whole event, there was a fantastic atmosphere with many gasps as horses landed over the big drop hedges and cheers as horses raced up the hill to finish.

Netty Nevill.