LAST weekend, the Irish Pony Club fielded five squads in the girls’ regional team competition at Moreton Morrell College in Warwickshire, where The Pony Club GB ran the Junior home international tetrathlon.

Ireland Duchas (pictured on pages 92-93) and Ireland Baile opened up a gap between themselves and others when finishing first and second on 17,584 and 17,174 points respectively. The Central Blues slotted into third on 16,826, marginally ahead of the East Of England (16,814).

Competing for Ireland Duchas were Carlow’s Ali Hughes (4,384), Waterford’s Aerin Tabb (4,419) and Longford’s Evelyn Murray (4,329). Also on the winning team were Kilkenny’s Anna Rose Hughes (4,274, the discard score) and Galway Mid County’s Hannah Hussey (4,452), who were members of the Ireland quintet who won the international team competition.

Ireland Baile’s second-place finish was due to the efforts of the Killinicks’ Caitlin Griffith (4,328), Wexford’s Sarah Finn (4,294), Co Limerick’s Martha Buckley (4,307), Carlow’s Orla Kelly (4,245) and Meath’s Tasmin Haughey (4,048 the discard score).

Individual

Hannah Hussey was narrowly beaten into second in the girls’ individual competition, as just 11 points separated her from Area 17’s Annabel McKeown, a member of the Killultagh, Old Rock and Chichester Branch, who topped the final leaderboard on 4,463. Also finishing in the top 10 were Aerin Tabb (third), Ali Hughes (fifth), Evelyn Murray (sixth), Caitlin Griffith (seventh), Martha Buckley (ninth) and Susan Finn (10th).

McKeown retained all of her 1,400 ride points, as did four of the IPC members mentioned plus Kildare’s Nia Webbon, Co Limerick’s Freya Barry and North Kilkenny’s Pixie Murphy.

Also among the 91 starters were Waterford’s Orlaith Frisby, Newcastle Lyons’s Pippa Gaffney, Golden Vale’s Carra Molloy, Carbery’s Vivienne Draper and Emma Travers, Duhallow’s Olivia Roche and Grace Cronin, the Islands’ Lucie Donovan, Tipperary’s Isobel Landy, North Kilkenny’s Eabha Murphy, The Kingdom’s Grainne Donegan, Killinick’s Shannon Griffith, Wicklow’s Zoe Boydell and Kildare’s Pippa Dunne.