EARLY this month, John Flood, the Irish Pony Club’s chair of Tetrathlon and Minimus, led a squad of IPC members across to the senior regional international tetrathlon staged by Area 6 of The Pony Club at Aylesford Equestrian near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire.

It was honours even between Ireland and England when it came to the open team competitions which were also contested by Wales and Scotland. The Irish boys scored 10,365 points to beat England (10,075) while the Irish girls had to settle for second (10,036), as England won narrowly on 10,282.

Wet and windy conditions greeted competitors on the Saturday when the action was devoted to the shoot and swim phases. Thankfully, the weather had improved 24 hours later – much to the delight, in particular, of the large Irish support group.

The successful Irish boys’ team comprised Sean Alfred (Co Limerick), William Verling (West Waterford), Jamie Hargaden (Carlow), Jed Collins (Ward Union) and Feargal de Barra (Clare). Individually, Verling (2,951 points) and Collins (2,739) finished first and third, being split by England’s Sam Cobb (2,779), a member of the Polden Hills Branch.

Bray’s Aisling Marriott (2,640) fared best of the Irish girls individually as England’s Poppy Clark, a member of the Beaufort Hunt Branch, claimed the honours with 2,824 points. Also representing Ireland were Longford’s Aine Murray (2,600), Kildare’s Ellie Dillon (2,507), Galway’s Isabella Devitt (2,289) and Meath’s Meabh Long (2,188).

Bragging rights

The IPC girls claimed bragging rights when it came to the hotly-contested regional competitions as they fielded three of 12 teams in their division, finishing first, second and 10th through their Leinster (15,654), Connaught (15,498) and Munster (13,323) squads. The successful quintet comprised the winning international team.

Clark again came out on top individually (here on 4,224 points) but only narrowly from Sophia Williams (4,115) who is a member of the Seskinore Branch in Area 17 (Northern Ireland), with Marriott third on 4,040.

There were only five squads in the open boys’ team competition and here Ireland placed first (Leinster), fourth (Munster) and fifth (Connaught). As with the girls, the successful Leinster team was also the winning Ireland team of Alfred, Verling, Hargaden, Collins and de Barra.

Verling and Collins finished first (4,345) and fourth (4,139), split by Seskinore/Area 17’s Patrick Williams (4,275) and the South West/Polden Hills’ Sam Cobb (4,179). A

A report on last weekend’s IPC tetrathlon championships will appear in next Saturday’s issue along with one on this weekend’s Connolly’s Red Mills national eventing championships at Tatteralls Ireland and Area 17 home eventing championhips at Lusks on Monday.