The novice run to a bogey time of 4m 45.50 seconds and was won by the very last team to go the Whiskey Chasers who stopped the clock right on the bogey time, 2nd were the Fitties, 3rd The Halesworth Hedgehoppers and 4th The Housewives Cavalry.

It was testament to the hard work by the Course Builders in updating and revamping the course that only four of the 20 teams in the Open failed to finish, several open ditches have been introduced, the hedges have grown and filled out and the whole course was beautifully built. Accurate jumping through the offset double of brush fences at 16 played a vital part in the result.

It was good to see the Patey Hats Legover Ladies have a go at the open, these fearless ladies fly over the fences side-saddle and apart from a few steering problems they did complete the course in a time of 6m25.50s.

The Teme Valley Tigers were second to go. As three of them were also riding with the ‘Tiggers’ they had to go out of order so they could change horses. Sarah Myhill led them away with Maggie, angling all the hedges and giving Nicky Wenban, Paul Browse and Bryan Allen a superb lead. They set the standard by stopping the clock at 4m22.75s.

The Hampshire Hedgehunters were next to go but with only three members, and a stop at fence 7 they were sadly eliminated.

We could have been fooled by the Hair Raisers Too line up, Debbie Topping and Graham Smith, on his new horse, had joined forces with Aly Brown, Soza and Chris Marriot on Mr Smudge, a run out for Chris Marriot at the water ended his round, the other three stopped the clock in a respectable time of 4m52.47s.

The Cradle Snatchers, one of the teams promoted from intermediate with Hanah and Sarah Phizaklea, Sarah Docker and Gemma Hutchinson had a solid round in a time of 5m31.94s

The Team Valley Tiggers, Sarah Myhill, Nicky Wenban, and Bryan Allen were this time joined by Christine Furness, they had a very neat and tidy round in a time 4m39.66s giving them 6th place overall and qualification to the Championships.

Alpha 1st, did manage to complete the course in a very slow time, but the Wanna Bees after a fall for Steph Hall at the offset brush fences and the Odds & Sods losing Sharon Robbins at the last fence, both failed to complete.

The Welsh Wizzards, led by Kenton Jones made the offset brush fence look easy and jumped it as well as any team, bringing them home in under 5minutes. The Marston Misfits, Equus Health Herbal Junkies and the Wacky Racers all finished just over the 5-minute mark.

Bollocks to Blair, Anita Hall on Fred, Mark Smith – Bruce and Rowan Cope- Harry made light of the tight turns through the hedges from fence four through seven and a time of 4m30.53s gave them a well deserved 3rd place.

Fight the Ban had Millie Stewart-Wood, joining the three lads, Ben Pauling and Peter and Richard Mason. Ben was back on Pappilion who looked in fine form after his heavy fall at the Meynell the week before. They all rode a superb round getting all the technical parts of the course jumped accurately beating the Tigers time by 2 seconds.

There were now four of the top class teams left to go The Bitch Pack, Sophie Rooker, Julie Wheeler, Lucy Bland and Jane Edmunds did not let us down, they once again put in one of their polished performances a time of 4m 36.76s gave them fifth place and the other qualification place for the championships.

Expectations were running high for The Joules Knightly Hatters, as they set sail over the first three fences led by Ian Shipley on Pepper when a loose dog set off in hot pursuit, unfortunately the dog would not give up the chase and both Andrew Shipley and Stuart Morris could not avoid a collision, fortunately neither horses, riders or the dog were hurt.

The Boring Gorings Fred French, Linda Adams, Nick Fuller, and Mark Smith stopped the clock in 4m 47.64s to put them into 7th place.

Last to go were the Hair Raisers, Aly Brown with the lovely grey Dragon, Paul Thomason, Tiny, Penny Still, Erin and Jo Jewell, FuzyLogic, they managed a time of 4m33.41s which gave them 4th place.

My apologies for the scrappy report this week folks, suffering from a bad cold and the brain not working too well.

Netty Nevill.