THE Killinick Harriers won the Wilsons Auctions team hunt chase at Balmoral Show for the fifth year in a row last Saturday as, for the first time in almost 30 years, the event continued into the weekend.

Unfortunately, due to the late running of classes in the Main Arena (the hunt chase was delayed by two and a half hours), there was a small crowd present to recognise the achievement of Killinick Master Johnny Roche and his teammates Benny Walsh, James Rath and Jenny Roche. They didn’t get home until 1am.

Fourteen teams competed in the hunt chase, the efforts of those travelling from further afield being appreciated by organiser Craig Cavan as was the continued sponsorship of Ian Wilson.

In the final, the Killinicks beat the Kildare Foxhounds with the Ballymacads winning the best turned-out award. That Co Meath pack also picked up the ‘most enterprising ride’ award through side-saddle exponent Wendy Cooney.

“We won’t find things so easy in the league this year,” said Walsh. “Some of those other teams have come on a lot since last season.”

On Thursday evening Craig presented a cheque to the value of £1,000 on behalf of the Northern Ireland Masters of Foxhounds to Professor James Nixon, president of the Mitre Trust which is based in Belfast’s Musgrave Park Hospital near Balmoral Show’s former home at King’s Hall. The Mitre Trust is a charity which aims to raise money to improve patient services and to fund new developments at Musgrave, the regional centre for orthopaedics and rehabilitation in Northern Ireland and often visited by those in the world of equestrianism.