MEMBERS of the Irish Pony Club enjoyed a very successful trip to Britain last weekend when competing in The Pony Club junior regional Tetrathlon competition at Moreton Morrell College in Warwickshire.

In the girls’ team event, the winning IRE Silver squad amassed 17,848 points to score by 189 points from Scotland Girls Blue (17,659) and by 205 points from Central Gold (17,643). The winning team comprised captain Isobel Radford-Dodd (Wicklow), Heather O’Connor (Waterford), the South Westmeath sisters Rebecca and Erika Lowe, and Sarah Seymour (Nenagh).

Out of the 21 teams which competed, IRE Bronze finished fourth on 17,271 points while IRE Gold placed sixth on 17,139.

Two IPC members finished in the top six in the individual rankings which were headed by the Central Gold/Beaufort Hunt representative Poppy Clark on a total of 4,742. Rebecca Lowe completed on a score of 4,573 to be fourth, with Isobel Radford-Dodd just a place adrift on 4,552. Lowe won the swim phase on 1,400 points.

Central Black won the boys’ team competition on 18,163 points, finishing just 57 points clear of the IRE Harps team of James McCloughan (East Donegal), captain Noah Pim (Warrington), Simon Barrett (Ward Union), Daragh Fitzgerald (South Westmeath) and Killian Bourke (Bray). IRE Shamrocks were third on 17,573 points with IRE Crystals sixth on a total of 16,763.

Morgan Thompson of the Llangeinor Branch and Wales & Borders topped the individual leaderboard on 4,792 points, with Fitzgerald best of the IPC members in fourth, mainly thanks to his winning swim score of 1,376.

An analysis of Sunday’s ride figures revealed that 24% of all competitors achieved the maximum 1,400 points, with 30% of the IPC members doing so.