THE vagaries and effects of the weather in this country was well emphasised at Punchestown last Saturday when a lovely morning and ideal going changed to rain of ‘biblical’ proportions, thunder and lightning which caused a temporary pause to proceedings and, finally, a radical deterioration of the ground conditions which led to the abandonment of that day’s later competitions and the cancellation of Sunday’s ‘B’ fixture.

“I felt really sorry for the organisers who had really put a lot of work into the event,” said Sarah Ennis who was walking around at the start for her cross-country phase of the EI110 on the well-placed KSH Touch Of Quality when deciding to withdraw that OBOS Quality 004 mare just before the announcement came that the class had been abandoned.