Brian Hennessy

IRELAND’s highest ranked rider on the world jumping rankings, Bertram Allen, officially launched the 2015 All Ireland Inter-Schools Show Jumping Championships, which will be held at the Co Wexford Showgrounds in Enniscorthy on Saturday, May 2nd 2015.

Speaking at the launch at the Cloch Ban in Clonroche Saturday last, the 19-year-old winner of the Dublin, Lummen and Verona Grand Prix said: “I jumped in quite a few inter-schools classes here in Enniscorthy just a few years ago and also in Boswell and they were great fun. I am delighted to be able to help out here at the launch of the 2015 Championships and I am sure it will be a big success.”

In an exciting new development for the coming year, the top six teams from the Inter-Schools Championships in Enniscorthy will then go forward to the Supreme Championships, which will be held at the Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, Co Cork.

Speaking to The Irish Field, All Ireland Inter-schools national chairperson Marguerite Furlong said: “We hope this is the future of inter-schools show jumping, our numbers have been down and we have been looking for something to increase numbers again. So we used some contacts we had with the Duggan family in Millstreet and we are delighted to now be in the situation that the top six teams after the championships will get to jump in Millstreet. The late John Jude Doyle had given so much to these championships and we all agreed that we needed to pull out all the stops this year as this really is his legacy.”

Furlong continued: “We have had years here with almost 100 teams of four riders competing and there were times that we almost needed headlights on the ponies to finish the jumping. We hope the revamped and revitalised championships in Enniscorthy will attract huge numbers as, if teams want to jump at Millstreet, they must first qualify here in Wexford in May.”