Category Archives: Championship Reports

Tet Champs 2022 Event Report

Well well! Tet Champs has once again delivered on being both the extravaganza and centre piece of the Tet calendar. The competition, camaraderie, kinship, inter- branch relations and hot hot weather were all available in bucket loads and will go down as a champs to remember.

With the exception of a few, most Area 5 tetrathletes were on their second Tet Champs and to some extent everyone knew the game. OffChurch would be a full up and testing course and the standard of the shoot, swim and group run heats would be tough. Oh and the eagerly anticipated partying.

Tet is a team sport, and although we cherish the individual performances, the winning senior boy and girl in their speech echoed the sentiment that we should be encouraging as many as possible to come and try our sport. Cheshire Hunt South fielded a junior Girls team – the Divas – Abby, Sophie, Polly and Harriet. The WWW’s were hugely successful in fielding a boys team of Olly Loud, Henry Bates and Jake Stockton, well done to The Wynnstay, a team of boys is an achievement in itself.
Area 5 were then able to make 3 mixed area teams; The Scarlet’s- Leah Lamb, Bethy Stephens, Harry Taylor, and Thomas Johnson; The Green’s Bea Taylor, Orla Kissane & Scarlett Gilruth; and The White’s Annabel James, Carys Dillon, Freddie James.

In the Intermediate Girls, Bea Taylor from CHS got the ball rolling with a shoot to keep her in contention, but at 880 left some ground to make up, which she promptly did with a fantastic 9.19 swim, putting her in pole overnight and Freddie James put in a respectable 900 shoot, and Carys Dillion from Tanatside competing for the first time at Champs shot well with a 760.
In the Junior classes, top marks to Olly Loud from WWW’s with a perfect 1000, but scores that were more mortal and reflected the pressure of the occasion- Sophie and Thomas held on to a respectable 900, Bethy 860, Leah an 840, Abby 820. However, Polly returned an 840 which we think is a PB in competition for Polly and Harriet a 760, again an improvement on 2021 well done, Harry, leaving himself some work to do with a 780.

The Friday heat was building rapidly, and we suddenly found ourselves clamouring to get to the air conditioned Leisure centre for the swim, The viewing gallery in the pool was, for once a welcome cool break from outdoor heat. The Swim phase was every bit as exciting as it promised to be and gave the competitors a chance to put all their training to the test. Safe to say that everyone came back happy from the Swim, with PB’s a plenty- well done to Thomas, Harry, Polly, Harriet, Olly & Bethy, all swimming a PB, to Leah who PB’d making the touch on 9 and to Abby who broke the 9 length and pushed on a bit more.

The late Friday afternoon sun was then a fantastic chance to cool down in the river, so everyone trooped off down the hill and jumped in- it was great meeting and spending time with Scottish and Northern Irish tetrathletes on the river bank.

To the Riding then, and Saturday was another scorcher, so HQ planned ahead and tried to go an hour early at 8am, but suffered a pre start hiccup and eventually got going at 8.30. The Open and Intermediate classes rode first and avoided the worst of the heat- Bea Taylor putting to bed the water complex demons of last year, rode a text book clear round to maintain her lead.
The junior boys followed the Intermediates and max 1400 ride scores went to Olly, Thomas, Harry, & Jake, well done. It was well into the afternoon and the height of the sun when the Junior girls rode; Well done Scarlett Gilruth, Leah Lamb and Bethy Stephens all with a perfect 1400, sadly Orla accidentally missed a fence toward the end of the course, which can be hard to take, I know, I recall all too well with first hand experience from my days in tet (!😂) but hopefully she will come back stronger for it next time. Then it was the turn of the CHS Divas; someone had clearly prepped the course commentator who relished in their name as one followed another. Huge well done to Abby on her new ride and Sophie stepping up and both scored a full 1400 together with Harriet on the ever reliable Slaney. Polly was also on a new ride for 2022 and rode a challenging & brave round on a bold pony.

With the ride done and literally dusted, it was all eyes on the party; Cops, Tom-Cats, Construction workers, and Cheer leaders in true collective ‘Village People’ style partied their way through the evening, though some partied perhaps more than others!! There may have been a hint of a parent or two joining in but I couldn’t possibly comment any further on that.

Going in to the run phase it was all to run for: Olly was leading the Junior Boys, Thomas in joint second, Bea leading the Inter girls, and The CHS Divas lying second, chasing 26 seconds on class leaders the Wylie Valley, but also being hotly pursued by The Beaufort girls on their heels, only 10 seconds behind.
Tet Running at Champs is in seeded heats, and the event was fantastically exciting as the route permitted viewing throughout giving plenty of opportunity for ‘encouragement’ along the way! Again, there was some really strong runs, well done Olly with a stonking 5.08, to Orla with a 5.38, and Sophie with a heat-leading 5.46. The Inters and Open ran later and the heat dial was once again notching up by the minute. Friendly Tet Family waited for the runners to cross the finish and greeted them with buckets of cold water! Well done Fred- amongst a really strong heat, to Annabel, and to Bea- all battling the competition & conditions, and with Bea hanging on to her lead to take the win – huge well done Bea, we’re all mega proud of you! In the Juniors, Olly won the Boys class with a hugely impressive and unassailable 4475 points, and Thomas Johnson 5th on 4342 points.
In Junior girls, Sophie was individual 5th on 4396 points, but the CHS Divas cemented their 2nd place by extending their lead over The Beaufort, but couldn’t match the speed and power of the girls of the Wylie Valley (Their coach is an Olympian!) nevertheless, team 2nd is a huge achievement- one that was matched by the Wynnstay in the boys class- well done all round. The Mixed Area Team Scarlet of Leah, Bethy, Thomas and Harry came 4th. There were additional rosettes for 1400 scores and completion medals for everyone who finished- which given all the challenges was no mean feat.

There was also the reformatted Grassroots class to bring on our next generation of Tetrathletes; no one from CHS this time, but Archie Evans of the Tanatside, Lleucu and Macsen from the Fn’D and Imogen Gilruth from WWWynns were all competing for first time. Well done to Lleucu placed 9th and to Archie who finished an amazing 4th! Ones to watch for the future.

So, we finish the champs with a fantastic set of results for CHS and Area 5, both with individual and team performances, creating a really strong base to build from and hopefully bringing some of the Tet enthusiasm back to the pony clubs to inspire more members to join in and give it a go.

The Tet season isn’t quite over yet, though perhaps time for a short pause for an actual summer holiday(!)- before the Winter Tri’s commence there will still be time for Tetrathlons arranged by The Albrighton, the Flint n’Denbigh and Cheshire Hunt South in September and October.

Overall Tetrathlon in Area 5 is closing this year in a great place. Well done to everyone, parents, helpers and members- on all your efforts to make tetrathlon what it is and for all the effort that goes into the sport.

Annabel’s Story – National Tetrathlon 2019 Champs

Annabel James (East Cheshire) won the Intermediate Girls competition at the National Tetrathlon Championships. This is Annabel’s story…

On Thursday night we left for the Pony Club Tetrathlon Championships. Once we had got the horses settled in, we made plans for the busy day of shooting and swimming, everyone was very excited. I wasn’t shooting until 2pm on Friday afternoon, leaving what seemed like a very long morning as I was quite nervous, but it also meant I had time to ride Cloudy and get organised in plenty of time. It felt rather strange starting the competition so late, as usually the older competitors are on first.

Continue reading Annabel’s Story – National Tetrathlon 2019 Champs

Pony Club National Tetrathlon Championships

August 10th-12th 2018

The 2018 Pony Club National Tetrathlon Championships were held at Offchurch Bury, Warwickshire. It was a fantastic weekend with competitors attending from all Areas across the country.

This was the first year that the National Championships had been held here, moving on from last years venue of Bishop Burton College and it proved to be a great choice for the event. The stabling, campsite, main marquee, food court and cross country course were all within a 5 minute walk of each other.  The cross country course had a great reception, although it was technically very challenging, the large number of “L” fences made it accessible for all.

There were some fantastic scores across the weekend with our Area 5 competitors performing brilliantly.

Open Boys

We had two Open Boys competing this year, Toby Johnson (East Cheshire) and Russell Wingfield (Aberconwy).

Toby was freshly back from his trip to the USA where he had been representing Great Britain for tetrathlon after taking part in a rigorous selection process. On the Friday evening, Toby, along with the other International team members spoke about their experiences and encouraged other up and coming competitors to aim for a spot in the squad in future years.  Toby performed brilliantly at the Nationals achieving 8th place with a clear ride (other than a few time faults).

Russell Wingfield had a great time at the Nationals with his horse Hugo, achieving a very respectable 9th place having faced stiff competition. Russell had a fantastic shoot of 960 achieving the Best Shoot in the Open Boys. Earlier in the month Russell was selected to represent Wales and Borders at the Regional 100 competition.

Junior Boys

Archie Peffers (Waen-y-Llyn) attended the Nationals for the first time having just moved up from Minimus. He gave a really solid performance and held his own against the more experienced competitors.

Junior Girls

It was great to see the return of Orlagh Toner (Flint and Denbigh) back to tetrathlon having achieved a qualifying place at our Area qualifier back in July at Warwick. She performed very well and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I’m sure we will be seeing a lot from Orlagh next year when she moves up into the Intermediate Girls category!

Grassroots

Leah Lamb (Flint and Denbigh) took part in the Grassroots competition at the championships. The Grassroots competition is open to both Branch and Centre Members of all ages who have not competed at Junior level Tetrathlon or above at Regional or Area Competitions. This year is the 5th year of the Grassroots Tetrathlon Competition at the Pony Club Tetrathlon Championships.

Leah did exceptionally well! The weekend started with her achieving a fantastic shoot of 960. This was the second best shoot out of a class of 52 people!  Leah held her own in the other three disciplines and ended up finishing in 9th place! Well done Leah – what a great result!

Area 5 National Tetrathlon Championship Qualifier 2018

Ed: If anyone would like to send me photos to put with this report, please send to area5pcuk@gmail.com

July 14- 15th, 2018

The Area 5, 7 and 9 National Tetrathlon Championship Qualifier 2018 took place at both Whitfield Farm, Ettingham, Warwick, courtesy of the Wakeham family (cross country ride, shoot and run phases) and at the Newbold Comyn Leisure Centre, Leamington Spa (swim phase).

It was a fantastic event! All those that took part commented on the lovely atmosphere! We were all made to feel exceptionally welcome by the Wakeham family. Many of our competitors enjoyed camping and stabling with the Hutsby family who are local to the event.

The Chief Stewards for the weekend were Andy Frame and Judy Hardcastle.  They were both exceptionally impressed with the cross country course and going considering the lack of rain. The whole course had been watered and where necessary the rutted ground had been rolled and crushed to remove the lumps and bumps. The Wakeham family were still checking and preparing the ground on the evening prior to the event to ensure it was as good a surface as possible for the competitors and their horses.

Area 5 had competitors in the Open Boys, Junior Girls, Junior Boys, Mini Girls, Mini Boys and Tadpole Girls classes.

  • Russell Wingfield (Open Boy) from Aberconwy came in 2nd place with some stiff competition achieving the highest ride score of the boys qualifying for the National Championships.
  • Orlagh Toner (Junior Girl) from Flint and Denbigh had a fantastic clear ride on a technical course qualifying for the National Championships.
  • Archie Peffers (Junior Boy) from Waen-y-Llyn was placed 5th qualifying for the National Championships with a clear cross country ride. Archie said that he enjoyed the cross country course so much he would like to go round again!
  • Leah Lamb (Mini Girl) from Flint and Denbigh came in 6th place. Leah had the smallest pony, at 11.2hh, of the day to go around the cross country course! She was absolutely delighted to achieve an almost clear cross country ride with only one very unlucky stop.
  • Isabella Stone (Mini Girl) from Flint and Denbigh put in a very credible performance. Well done Isabella.
  • Thomas Johnson (Mini Boy) from Cheshire Hunt South achieved 2nd place.
  • Daisy Stone (Tadpole Girl) from Flint and Denbigh came in 2nd place with Best Swim.
  • Constance Wright (Tadpole Girl) from Flint and Denbigh came in 4th place with Best Shoot.
  • Polly Johnson (Tadpole Girl) from Cheshire Hunt South achieved 5th place! A great performance by all our Tadpole Girls in a tough class of 12 competitors.
  • Toby Johnson (Open Boy) – East Cheshire also gained a place to compete at the National Championships as Toby is currently part of the GB International Tetrathlon team competing in the USA.

The National Tetrathlon Championships which are to be held on August 9th – 12th at Offchurch Bury near Leamington Spa. The Grassroots Tetrathlon competition is to be held at the same venue on August 10 – 11th.

National Tetrathlon Championships (including Grassroots Tetrathlon)

The National Tetrathlon Championships were held at Bishop Burton College from the 11th – 13th August 2017.

Area 5 had 7 competitors who qualified at the Area 5 Tetrathlon competition held at Whitfield farm, Warwick for this prestigious event. Unfortunately, Keeva Stott was unable to attend.

Open Boys

Both Area 5 Open Boys, Russell Wingfield (Aberconwy) and Toby Johnson (East Cheshire) came in the top 10 placings! Toby was 4th with a joint Best Shoot (940) and Russell 9th. Both competitors achieved a total score in excess of 4000 points which is fantastic achievement.

The previous weekend, Toby and Russell had both represented Wales and Borders in the Regional 100 Event held at Southfield House, Nunney, Frome, Somerset.

Junior Girls

Area 5 had a Mixed Area team of four Junior Girls taking part in the event. Annabel James (East Cheshire), Ella Booth (Cheshire Hunt North), Kiera Booth (Cheshire Hunt North) and Orla Stott (Cheshire Hunt South). This was an exceptionally large class consisting of 86 girls! The competition got underway with some very impressive shoot scores from Area 5. Orla – 900, Kiera – 800, Annabel – 960 and Ella – 980. We hoped Ella’s score would gain her the award for the Best Shoot in the Junior Girls competition but two girls, Connie Gould (Old Berkeley Hunt) and Charlotte Hicks (East Cornwall Hunt) both scored the maximum points achievable of 1000. All the Area 5 Junior Girls had a clear cross-country round on a course that was designed by Joe Weller.

Grassroots Competition

This year was the fourth year of the Grassroots Tetrathlon competition. The competition is open to both branch and centre members but competitors must not have competed at Junior level tetrathlon or above at Regional or Area level competitions.

Competition outline:

  • Swim: 3 minutes
  • Shoot: 7 metres
  • Ride: Show Jumping course with a slip rail and a halt box
  • Heights: 2ft to 2ft 6in (60-75cm)
  • Run:1000 metres

Area 5 had two competitors gain the highly sought-after places in this competition both from Flint and Denbigh PC, Archie Lynch and Leah Lamb. Both put in fantastic performances and held their own against much older competitors in a class of 48! Archie achieved 2nd place with a shoot score of 840. He was 4th in the swim and 6th in the run. Leah came 18th with a very impressive shoot of 920 narrowly missing the award for Best Shoot which was 940. Both Archie and Leah rode clear.

Well done all Area 5 competitors!

Area 5 Tetrathletes heading to Milton Keynes

Area 5 Tetrathletes who are heading off to Milton Keynes for the Triathlon Championships on 19 March.

Well done for qualifying and good luck at the competition to …

… Seniors

  • Milly McCarrick
  • Hamish Peffers
  • Russell Wingfield and
  • Toby Johnson;

… Juniors

  • Ella Booth
  • Kiera Booth
  • Annabelle James and
  • Jake Billington

… Minis

  • Lana Booth
  • Florence Butler
  • Beatrice Taylor
  • Archie Lynch
  • Archie Peffers
  • Rufus Taylor
  • William Stone and
  • Freddie James.

They will all be swimming, running and shooting with the best competitors from all of the other areas.

Champs Results 2016

Didn’t you all do well !

Aberconwy

  • Morgan Haerr on Timmy came 9th in the Novice Dressage
  • Russell Wingfield came 21st in the Open class at the Tet Champs. Russell was in 2nd place until the XC !

Berwyn and Dee

  • Individual Novice Dressage – Sian Evans
  • Individual Novice Event – Amie Beacock
  • Musical Ride team competed for the first time.

Burton Cheshire Forest

  • Beth Clegg Intermediate SJ. Had a clear 1st round but had poles down in the 2nd.
  • Grassroots Regional Dressage team competed at Eland and came 10th.

Cheshire Hunt North

  • Had a Novice Dressage team of Kiera Booth, Ella Booth,
    Sophie Sellers and Emily Entwistle.
  • Maia Hodgson competed as an Individual in the Open Show Jumping, Dressage and Eventing. Maia was given 4th in the Horsemanship SJ Awards.
  • Hannah Fallon was 8th in her arena Individual Intermediate Event
  • Emmeline Davidson Slack – competed as an Individual in the Intermediate Event.
  • Imogen Kennedy – Individual Intermediate SJ
  • Emily Entwistle came 9th in the Intermediate dressage to music.
  • Ella Booth qualified and competed at the Tet Champs.
  • Grassroots Regional Dressage Team won the Champs at Eland and Izzy Caldwell was 6th overall.

Cheshire Hunt South

  • Intermediate Event Team – Tia, Sophie, Orla and Lexie. Tia came 3rd in her Section.
  • Junior Games Team reached the final and came 6th – Florence, Ellen, Tabitha, Isadore and Felix.
  • Intermediate Individual SJ – Kate finished on 4 faults and came 11th out of 75 competitors.
  • Open Individual SJ – Lucy Lanni, Martha Newall and Rose Diggle. Out of 76 competitors, there were only 4 double clears and Martha was one of them. She came 2nd and Lucy 5th.
  • Grassroots Regional Dressage team came 2nd. Amelia Deller and Phoebe Deller came 3rd and 4th respectively at Eland. Their SJ team came 4th overall at Eland.
  • Tetrathlon – Freddie Ashworth 5th Junior, Orla and Keeva Stott took part as Juniors.  Their mixed team came 4th

East Cheshire

  • East Cheshire had an amazing 39 members competing at the Champs as well as two SJ teams at the Grassroots Regionals at Eland who came 6th and 7th.
  • Amazingly their two Musical ride teams came 1st and 2nd. They were brilliant.
  • Three pairs competed in the Dressage to music – Sam Foxall & Ciara McLellan (3rd), Phoebe Southern & Sofia Stubbs (4th), Alice and Dan Agnew (5th)
  • Grace Anthony came 7th Nov Dressage to Music and Sam Foxall came 12th in Open Dressage to Music.
  • Dressage – Novice Individuals – Jessica Taylor 3rd, Tasia Osborne 7th.
  • Novice and Intermediate teams competed in the S. Jumping.
  • Eventing – Novice Team competed (Sophie Holdcroft, Mary Goodridge, Sam Sant and Annabel James) as did Intermediate (Ciera McLellan, Sam Foxall) and Open Individuals (Tigi Hankey, Lilian Sears)
  • Mounted Games Intermediate team came 10th.
  • Polocrosse – Zoe Hill competed in a mixed Area 5 team (3rd)
  • A Junior Horse and Pony Care team came 8th.
  • A special mention to Sam Foxall who competed in Open Dressage, Open D to M, Pairs D to M, Intermediate SJ. and Intermediate Eventing.
  • Ciara McLellen who competed in Open Dressage, Pairs D to M, Int SJ, Intermediate Eventing and the Musical Ride.
  • Grassroots Reg Dressage – two teams competed at Eland and they were 6th and 7th.

Flint and Denbigh Hunt

  • Intermediate Event Team – Sophie Wilson, Catrin Evans, Libby Edwards and Laura Cocking.
  • Open SJ team 2nd – Brier Leahy, Lois Roberts, Sophie Toogood and Heidi O Brien.
  • Ben Read competed as an Open Individual and came 9th.
  • Ben Read qualified and competed at the Tetrathlon Champs in Bishop Burton and came 9th
  • Open Event Team 1st (Team as above)and winning the prestigious Stonar Trophy.
  • Heidi won her Section, Brier Leahy 3rd in hers, Lois Roberts 5th.
  • Brier was named as one of the Horsemanship riders. Brier was one of only 4 to get a double clear in the Open Event out of 100+ competitors!
  • Senior Games team came 7th.
  • Mixed Area 5 Polocrosse team came 3rd.with Kate Davies.

Sir Watkin Williams Wynn Hunt

  • The Junior MG team won.
  • The Junior H and Pony Care team won – Naomi Young, Pip Young, Kate Rutherford.
  • Naomi Young won her Section in the Novice Event finishing on her dressage score.

Tanatside

  • Cerys Jones and Timmy Orritt won the Pairs Dressage to Music.
  • Cerys Jones competed in the Area 5 Mixed Polocrosse team (3rd)
  • Amber Wilkinson and Hannah Burgoyne competed as Individuals in the Novice Show Jumping .
  • Grassroots Regional – team of Leah Harding, Elin Pryce, Jasmin Teague and India Wilkinson won the Area competition and came 8th at the Eland Champs.

Waen y Llyn

  • Edward Williams finished on 8 faults in the Intermediate S Jumping
  • Emily Boothroyd competed in the Ind Intermediate Dressage.
  • Hamish Peffers qualified and competed at the Junior Tet Champs in Bishop Burton.

Pennant Park Riding Centre

  • A Team competed at Eland and came 13th out of 25 teams.

This is approximately 150 Area 5 members. I am sorry if there are mistakes and/or I have missed anyone off. Let me know if you want anything changed.

A huge THANK YOU must go to all the Volunteers, Parents and DCs who have given up so much of their time to enable these members to have the opportunity to compete at Cholmondeley, Eland and Bishop Burton.

Thanks …. Meg Green …. Area 5 Representative

Areas 4 and 5 Horse Trials results 24th July 2016

Many thanks to Emily Barnes, our Chief HT scorer, for preparing these so quickly despite being away from the competition for most of the day – helping to run our Mini-Camp – and also for drafting in most of the rest of her family to ensure it all went without a hitch.

Many thanks also to all other officials, volunteers, helpers etc. for ensuring that we had a splendid day and to the King family for making sure the infrastructure was so well presented and worked.

Thanks also to all you competitors, your parents, branch officials, family and friends for taking part so cheerfully – despite the 1.2 mile trip to the XC course.

We were glad to see you all and look forward to inviting you back to Somerford again – should we ever get the chance.

Regards … Geoff

Area 5 Tetrathlon Competition

Over the weekend of 9 and 10 July a number of Area 5 members took part in the Tetrathlon Competition at Warwick. For the Open, Intermediate and Junior classes these were the qualifiers for the Championships and I’m delighted to say that Area 5 will now be well represented at the Champs. Those qualifying were:

  • Open – Ben Read
  • Intermediate – Toby Johnson and Russell Wingfield
  • Junior – Freddie Ashworth, Hamish Peffers, Orla Stott, Keeva Stott, Annabel James and Ella Booth.

A big well done to all of them and I hope they are all looking forward to competing at Bishop Burton in August.

Warwick once again put on fantastic courses for our younger members so that minis, tadpoles and tiddlers all had their own competitions. A further fifteen Area 5 members took part in these classes, with some excellent results. A special mention should go to Beatrice Taylor who beat 19 other mini girls to win her class.

As well as a thoroughly enjoyable competition many of the riders camped on the Saturday night and joined in the Area 5 (and friends) barbecue. Thanks to all those who provided the facilities for this – gas barbecue, fire pit, tables and chairs as well as the food, drink and company; what more could we want?

Penny W