Seventeen schools were represented at the Bradfield College Biannual Team Show Jumping Challenge at Merrist Wood Arena (Guildford) on Sunday and Cranleigh riders were on top form, winning two of the four height classes and taking the runner-up spot in the other two. This meant that they stormed away with the Finegold Challenge Cup, awarded to the school with the most points overall at the end of the day; they left the other 16 schools in their wake with their closest rival some 12 points behind them.
It was lovely to see some of our new riders leading the way in the morning and winning the Mini team competition by a clear margin from Farleigh School. There were clear rounds for Tiger Tang, Kristina Vitek and Jessie Schute in very good times and, although in our second team that was unplaced, for Daisy Roberts, as well as a really determined round by Annie Vitek on the smallest pony in the competition.
Kristina and Jessie joined forces with Will Millard and Jess Edwards in the Novice team class and were narrowly beaten into second (by less than a second per rider over the 12 fence course)! Will did particularly well to finish third individually out of the 56 riders in this class.
The Intermediate team of Charlotte Livingstone, Felicity Bull, Sophie Miller and Charlie Johnson were runners-up in their competition with very good clear rounds from Poppy Watkinson and Jess Edwards in this class too. Felicity took third spot individually in this class of 63 riders!
The Open course caused problems for lots of competitors but the Cranleigh riders stayed true to form to win this last class of the day, with the long-standing sixth form riders delighting in receiving the Finegold Cup on behalf of the rest of the team riders.
It was a great day for Cranleigh riders and lots to build on at this early stage in the riding year.
Chris Allison
