Saturday 26th February was the last day of competitions for Area 5’s Winter League show jumping season. Just as last year, it was held at Aintree which is a super venue, lovely and warm, tarmac parking area, dry warm up and waiting area etc etc etc. It was efficiently run by CHN who were very patient in waiting for some of the members caught out by class times! I am afraid we have all got used to jumping long after the “approx times” given for classes and will do well to remember for next year that they can run fast as well as slow!! Anyway no harm done and everyone got to jump.
Unfortunately I don’t have any written results for this competition and so this report is from what I can remember!!
We went to Aintree with the knowledge that we had already won classes 2, 3 and 4 as we were too far ahead of everyone else to be beaten!! Great place to be. In Class 1 we were only 5 points behind the leader which is quite an achievement for such a predominately young team as most of last season’s 10 and under’s have moved up to Class 2. They did extremely well under the pressure and came away with first place, leaving them in second place in the league only 4 points away from the cup. I expect they can’t wait for next year!! Eleri Reece Jones and Chez and Georgia Jones and molly were 4th and 5th individually.
The Class 2 Winter League team came 2nd and I know Ffion Roberts was placed individually on both Frosty and Polo as she had trouble holding all her prizes but I am not sure where she came but what a fab result. Class 3 Winter League team was 5th and the class was won individually by Brier Leahy and Tom.
Class 4 was the Dengie Area Final and we had quite a few F&D members qualified. I think there were about a dozen or so clears into the jump off and it was an exciting finish with 1st, 2nd and 3rd finishing within 1.5 seconds of each other!! Brier Leahy and Tom were 3rd with Manon Owen and Imp coming 4th so both of them have qualified for the Championships down at Moreton Morrell. Georgia Cabb and Smartie did extremely well and came 7th and Brier and her other ride Paddy came 8th.
I am sorry but I don’t know where our open Winter League team came but I do know that Sophie Toogood and Dylan won both the open and the open Dengie!! So, well done Sophie for her ticket to the Championships too.
Well done to everyone of you that took part in this seasons Winter League. It has had many, many ups and only a couple of downs but the end result was absolutely brilliant. A big huge thank you for my whiskey and wine and sweeties!! Nice touch with the Smarties, Jelly Babies and Magic Stars – any suggestions for next year’s team names will be greatly received.
Many thanks … Chris x
