Twelve of the fifteen entered open teams came forward to the start, the last chance to qualify for the 2006 Team Chase Championships at the Fernie next week.

The trailblazers, the Joules Knightly Hatters, attacked the course with their usual vigour, Yvonne Goss settling in between the two Shipley brothers, Ian and Andrew with Lucy Bland bringing up the rear. They stormed round the course making light of the large hedges early on and by the time they got to the fan fence they looked as though they were going to be very hard to beat, unfortunately however, this technical fence requires three horses to be through the marker flag, before they all jump the first element then each of these three horses must jump a different part of the second element, Yvonne could not persuade Perry he had to jump a different element to Ian Shipley, so lost valuable seconds retracing her steps and jumping another element, even with this mistake they still finished in a superb time of 4mins 48.86 seconds.

Next to come under starters orders were Ship or Bust, they set of at a steadier pace, the first three making the new and very tight new water complex look easy, but their steadier pace left them 30 seconds adrift of the Joules Knightly Hatters.

The Whacky Racers had all sorts of problems early on in the course and were eliminated.

Hair Raisers Too were next to go, with Chris Marriott giving Brian Allen, Hannah Johnson and Aly Brown a lovely lead over the water complex, their time of 5mins 52.77 secs giving them eventual 8th place.

The Pink Panthers started with only three riders, Charlotte Alexander, Jo Rugman and Peg Livingstone-Leamouth, had a good steady round hoping no doubt to go clear in order to procure a place and qualify for the championships next week and their time of 6mins 06.90secs gave them eventual 9th place and booked the second of the remaining qualifying places.

The Teme Valley Tigers were next to come under starters order, Sarah Myhill giving them a great lead on Maggie, with Angie Murphie and Nicky Wenban swapping places in second and third as they met the pen. They gave a wonderful display of team chasing, all admitting they had some scary moments and seeing the photos of Maggie at the drop fence it was somewhat a miracle that Sarah stayed on, their fourth member Helen Goodwin riding Crystal were competing in their first open event and had made a good account of themselves until two fences from home when Crystal decided enough was enough and let Helen jump the hedge alone, for some time there was a foot sticking up the other side of the hedge as Helen could not make it back to her feet, however the other three had done enough knocking just one second from the Joules Knightly Hatters time. Angie Murphy whose horse Lad lives out, had managed to catch him in daylight for the first time this spring!.

It was good to see a new team the Foreigners, consisting Terje Gilje, Rory Cullinan, Bertrand Facon and Francesca Muller taking on the open course and although Rory Cullinan was eliminated for taking the wrong first fence the team made a good account of themselves and managed to finish the course, albeit in the slowest finishing time.

The Odds & Sods and the Royal Ag Nags both lost riders, the Odds & Sods losing one on the flat enforcing both teams to retire.

Fight the Ban.Com were next to go, Ben Pauling led them away from the start on Ding Bat with his usual do or die manner, they were really galloping when Ben took a dive over the drop hedge at fence three, his team mates, Charlotte Alexander riding the wonderful old race horse Earthmover, Rupert Sturgis and Harry Dowty stormed on while Ben did one of his speedy remounts and when the others ran off fence 7 Ben was back in the lead, however these mistakes had cost them precious seconds and after losing Rupert Sturgis at the fan fence their chances had gone, they had to make do with a finishing time of 5mins 15.67secs and eventual fifth place.

Four teams were now left to try to topple the Teme Valley Tigers, first of these the Bitch Pack, who had been struggling all season to get a team together, they were as usual a joy to watch, they do not always have the fastest horses on the circuit but their precision and ability to cut fences on the most critical of angles always makes them a threat, Tamara Vestey gave them a very accurate lead, she rides so much like her mother Rosie, if she wore the same colour breeches it would be really difficult to distinguish which one was which, Jane Edmunds and Fiona Russell Brown gave her terrific back up, they unfortunately lost Sharon Robbins who could not steer through the pen and then had problems at the water, but their time of 4mins 59.98secs secured a very well ridden 4th place.

The Hair Raisers first team, consisting Allen and Ally Brown, Paul Thomason and Penny Still, had one of their better rounds this Spring, Allen admits he forgot there was a flag before the pipe fence and wondered why the rest of the team were going so wide, however he corrected his mistake and Burt gave him a much more fluent ride than he has been know to do, they finished in a respectable time of 4mins 57.12secs ten seconds adrift of the Teme Valley Tigers.

It was now left to Buck the Fan and the Hampshire Hedge Hoppers to try to topple the Teme Valley, Mark Smith led off Buck the Fan but with one or two problems along the way and a run off four fences from home for Adam Hayes whose horse had burst a blood vessel they had to rely on the time of their fourth rider. However they did finish in 7th place and booked their place in the Championships at the Fernie next week.

The Hampshire Hedge Hunters, were unfortunately eliminated, leaving a delighted quartet of Tiger ladies leaping up and down with glee.

The novice class was won by the team of A Mild Case of Tourettes in a time of 4mins 12.83secons to a bogey time of 4mins15seconds, second place went to Charlies Angels and third to The Heath Grange Honeys.

The very strong Intermediate class was won by Another Generation in a time of 4mins 4.65seconds, Katharine Tudor, Alistair Beedles, Sarah Gibson and Susannah Gill, have all qualified for the championships next week and had decided to give their horses an easier ride before the big event. Second place went to The Muffins Odds and Sods and third place to Harvey Hellraisers.

The draw of the running order for the championships took place after the prize giving and 23 of the 25 teams qualified have indicated they will be contenders.

Victoria Cowan, wife of Philip Cowan, chairman of the Fernie Team Chase took a crashing fall yesterday at the Harborough Ride, she was airlifted to hospital with pelvic and internal injuries. On behalf of all the teams I would like to wish Victoria a full and speedy recovery.

I am sorry that the odd one or two of you have missed my reports this season, I can only apologise, this has been caused by my advancing years and the bitter weather!!!!

See you all at the Championships and let us all hope the weather is kind to us.

Netty Nevill.