The Ship or Bust team gets there name from its sponsors and their cavalier approach to team chasing. The team sponsor is the local tavern, The Olde Royal Ship (proprietor Helen Greening 01666 840 222), which is a true Beaufort hunting pub and is used for team meetings. However, with the amount of beer that flows tactics are often confused with the number of injuries each team member can acquire in one evening. Due to this the team is continually changing and more often than not the commentator has a gender crisis when calling them home!!
However, this years team seems to have taken a more serious approach and some how qualified for the Championships at the Cotswolds. Lady luck or judgement is still widely debated but it will be decided in April no doubt (Foxgrant Chasers watch out – yes we can read!). Having lost Mimi, on whom Jo Pellett qualified, the team now has Liz astride Jack, to complete the team!
Leading the team is Tony Pellett on Dan. There is little that needs to be said about this combination except if you catch a glimpse of them, then they’re going too slow. Tony has team chased since the beginning and knows every trick in the book about saving seconds, even if the rest of the team are in a different county!!
Second in line is Richard Hawker (a local farmer) on Millbrook. Originally from the point-to-point world there is little doubt that the doctrine of going from A to B as fast as bloody possible is still heavily ingrained. Often seen with a horse and three cows in his wagon we just hope he’s not too tipsy when tacking up!!
Richard Evans, riding Ben, is more widely known as a horse dentist (could be handy!) and event rider. Team chasing is a new sport for this combination but having seen him removing staples out of his head (team tactics accident!) to get his hat on we know he has enough grit to finish – even if he’s carrying his trusty stead!
Bringing up the rear, the only lady in the team (again much debated!) is Liz Hibbard on Jack. With a new horse for this season she takes the team name to a new level – it really will be s**t or bust! Often makes the male riders blush with her colourful interpretation of the English language, which encourages man, dog, and horse!
As with any team there are always people behind the scenes to hand out port, manhandle riders away from the Porto loos and generally say, “I wouldn’t have done it like that!” Pam and Chris always supply the important stuff i.e. drink and food, Kate adds the much needed glamour in pink stilettos (although when asked to pass the studs she did query whether horses should wear earrings!!), Becky supplies the fear factor with the final shot “no ribbons and you can effing well walk home”, Jackie P for everything else (quite literally), Mel for seeing the funny side in everything, John for catching all the thrills or more commonly the spills on camera and the bemused sponsors who are usually too embarrassed to show up!!
Win or lose we love our booze! Everyone welcome!
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