RUNNING with its customary full quota of entries, Grove delivered another first-class fixture last weekend. Run by the enterprising Rosemary Ponsonby and her team, the park event produced a new look cross-country course, and amazingly, even escaped the rain which deluged the surrounding areas.

Always innovative, Grove’s cross-country tracks, which as usual were designed by Paul and Allen Brady, took new routes and featured a concentration of fences in a spectator-friendly area. As a result, the viewing from this central point is now among the best in the country, as supporters can watch almost every fence. “The whole idea was to try to make it more consumer friendly,” explained Ponsonby, who in another forward thinking move, is hoping to be able to ring the changes with dressage judges, especially in some of the more advanced classes.