DENIS Currie, who had been supporting his grandson Isaac McCarthy at The Pony Club championships in England the previous weekend, would have been in two minds about Jean Mitchell’s return to judging duties at Loughanmore last Saturday.

As pleased as he was with her surprise appearance, he may not have been that happy with his dressage score (33.3 penalties), which left him lying fourth of the six starters in the EI110 (Amateur). However, he recorded the only double clear - and inside the time at that - to land his sixth win of the season on the 16-year-old Lancelot gelding Merlot, with whom he was placed on his other four outings.

There were three double clears among the dozen starters in the EI100 (Amateur), where Hollie Smith completed on her Corey Mawhinney-awarded dressage score (24.8) with Mr Diceman (Ringfort Cruise - Love On The Wing, by Winged Love).

Smith and the John McBride-bred 12-year-old finished well clear of Kim Constable on her new ride Dolley Phantom (32), a 15-year-old mare who was previously campaigned up to 4* level by Britain’s Franky Reid-Warrilow, and Rachael O’Callaghan with her six-year-old mare MBF Like To Move It (32.8).

Crumlin’s Rachel Williams, who had helped put up the dressage arenas with her father Philip Swann and others, recorded her first win on their eighth start together when leading from start to finish in the EI90 (Amateur) on board Philip’s Entwistle Swann Song (Glenhill Gold - Ground Control, by Porsch).

This despite having a pole down show jumping and being a second over the time on her father’s home-bred seven-year-old ISH mare, who completed on a total of 29.2. Chloe Lister-Tinsley, who recorded one of three double clears in the 10-runner class, finished second with Blackstone Ruby (35).