The day started with the novice class run against a bogey time which had attracted an entry of 45 teams, the team nearest the bogey time were the Starbucks team consisting of Glenis Davis, Edward Lewis, Becky Titterton and Victoria Douglas-Jones, who were just .06 of a second off the bogey which had been set at 4minutes 32 seconds.

Second place went to the Tally Ho Fillies and third were Daves Slaves.

Twenty teams contested the first of the speed classes the Intermediate, which takes in a mix of the novice course, together with some bigger hedges and parts of the Open course. Steve Aspinall had put together an intermediate course which rode extremely well with hardly any significant problems along the way and a good standard of riding it was won in fine style by the Teme Valley Tiggers with Sarah Myhill leading them home on Con in the fastest individual time of the day, she was well supported by Andrew Bronwin, Nicky Wenban and Christine Furness.

Second place went to the Bitch Pack, the team of Sophie Rooker, Julie Wheeler, Jane Edmonds and Fiona Russell-Brown are always a joy to watch, they may not have the fastest horses on the circuit but they are always one of the neatest with some lovely tight turns.

In third place the Joules Knightly Hatters II would most probably have bettered their placing had they not lost Andrew Shipley when he fell from Penly and Rowan Cope had a run off one of the hedges.

The Marston Misfits, who won the Intermediate at the Grafton last week, finished fourth, their lead horse Hobnob also had a run off one of the hedges, Sally Main admitting it was total rider error.

Fifth were the Wanna Bees, just .6 of a second behind the Misfits, Sue Tideswell supplying three of the four horses in the team had acquired the services of Debbie Topping to ride one of them

Sixth were the Cunning Stunts.

The Coombe Farm Wines Open Qualifier course had several new fences, this is a course not for the feint hearted as it contains some huge headges with open ditches in front, which require a bold approach, however, at one of the new open ditches there was a longer alternative.

First team to go the Hair Raisers, met all sorts of trouble at the third fence and with two of their team falling and loose horses proving elusive to the horse catchers, the current National Champions were forced to retire.

Fight the Ban.Com also had a problem at fence three when they lost Harry Douty, however, Ben Pauling on Papillion, and Peter and Richard Mason ridng Master Glad and Cocoa respectively made light of the big fences, Richard Mason found himself somewhat off the pace, however a finishing time of 4m 40.77s gave them fourth position and booked their place in the championships

The Odds and Sods had a new look line up, the old stalwart Geoff Lockwood, Charlotte Alexander, Micky Harris and Sharon Robbins.

Unfortunately Charlotte had a stop and Micky Harris had a direction failure, Sharon Robbins, however took over the lead and was over the moon with her mount Josh, leading them home in a time of 4m 53.13s giving them 6th placing.

Next to go were the local team the Mythe Farm Chasers, the team of Paul Davenport, Ginny Sherwin, Leanne Ritchie thoroughly enjoyed their round, which was only their second open outing and they were absolutely elated to have completed the course, especially the way they jumped the new Open ditch, named “Dr Paul Davenports Delightful Open Ditch”.

The Boring Gorings were next to come under starters orders, this was a new line up from the usual Goring team with Rowan Cope taking his third ride of the day, (what a way to celebrate his marriage the day before!!!) Linda Adams on the ever youthful Denzil, Nick Fuller on Coco and Mark Smith, Harvey, A peck on landing brought both Rowan and Mark down at one of the new hedges, however, Rowan was soon on his feet and having hung on to his horse he was quickly back in the plate, Linda took over the lead and some very speedy turns saw them come home in a time of 4m 27.44s, this was now the time to beat.

The very next team to go The Teme Valley Tigers did just that, snipping just 3 seconds off the Boring Gorings time. Sarah Myhill with Maggie once again gave them a very fluent lead, although they too lost Nicky Wenban at fence 12 leaving Angie Murphy and Lad with no-where to go, fortunately although a bit sore Lad was able to scramble to his feet, Nicky quickly remounted and her overall speed across the ground brought the team back in contention, their fourth member Paul Browse had a cracking ride and now the new time to beat was 4m 24.60s.

So as the tension mounted the Joules Knightly Hatters, who had won the Grafton the previous week were called before the starter. The line up of Ian Shipley on Pepper, Stuart Morris on Pushover, and Yvonne Goss on the consistent Perry were joined by Peter Mason riding Heather Moody’s Kowai, Heather who recently broke her arm whilst out with the blood hounds, nervously watched the lovely grey fly the huge Atherstone hedges. Apart from a run out at fence 17 for Stuart Morris after which he retired, the Hatters had a copybook round finishing in an unbelievable time of 4m 11.73s.

There were now two teams left to go the Pink Panthers only had three members and when one was eliminited half way round the course, their challenge was over.

So last to go were the Hair Raiser II, it was good to see Jo Jewell, a stallwart of team chasing for many years and a superb tactical rider out in the lead with Ali Brown riding Toddy, Brian Allen and Chris Marriott on Mr Smudge. Even though they were cutting corners and meeting the angles absolutely spot on they did seem to be a bit lacking pace and surprisingly were the only team to take on the alternative fence at the big open ditch at 11, As Mr Smudge then had a stop at one of the later open ditches this was probably a wise move. Their time of 4m 42.43s put them in fifth place.

Thus the final line up was,

1st Joulles Knightly Hatters,
2nd Teme Valley Tigers,
3rd The Boring Gorings
4th Fight the Ban. Com
5th The Hair Raisers II
6th The Odds and Sods.

The two teams gaining qualification for the championships were the Boring Gorings and Fight the Ban. Com.

Netty Nevill.