THE VWH Hunt branch of the Pony Club won the National Open Eventing Championships, sponsored by Strutt & Parker, at Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire last weekend.

The VWH Pony Club team consisted of James Norris (16), from South Marston, Pumbaa Goess-Saurau (15), from Marlborough and Anna Horton (16), and Alice Bibby (17), from Swindon. All team members jumped clear cross-country inside the time having produced some stunning dressage tests earlier in the day.

Pumbaa and Alice also won their individual sections in the Open event, with Alice being awarded the Open Eventing Bursary for her excellent cross country round.

This Bursary is awarded to the Pony Club Member under 21 who, in the opinion of the judges, has ridden the most competent horsemanship round on the cross country course at the Open Eventing Championships.

The winner receives five days’ training with Jane Holderness-Roddam at her yard.

The team also won the HSBC Elite Training Day with William Fox-Pitt and Mary King.

The VWH team have been trained by three day eventing specialist Chris Hall from Icomb, near Stow-on-the-Wold for several years.

There was also success for Beaufort Hunt Pony Club members, who won the Pony Club Championship Intermediate Eventing Final.

The winning team – Gabriella Rose, 18, Georgina Preest, 18, Marina Jodrell, 15 and Zoe Davison, 12 have been active members of the Beaufort Hunt branch since they were old enough to join.

THE Halcyon Gallery team have won the historic Bledisloe Warwickshire Cup at Cirencester Park Polo Club after a thrilling final against the Black Bears.

Record-breaking crowds at the Ivy Lodge ground saw the game clinched in a knife-edge sixth chukka, with Ali Paterson scoring the deciding goal in the dying seconds to make the score 9-8. The match started in style with the match ball flown in by the Silver Stars parachute display team and there were never more than two goals between the two sides.

At 8-8, it was looking set for an extra chukka when seconds before the bell, Paterson scooped an amazing under-the-neck shot from nowhere to find the posts.

After the game Paterson described it as a career highlight, but emphasised that despite being delighted to claim the winning goal it was very definitely a team effort that earned them the trophy.

Earlier in the morning, the Godolphin Polo Team beat Felix 9-8 to win the Bathurst Cup Final.

THREE of the cross country fences used at the London Olympics three-day-event course in Greenwich Park will make a quick reappearance at the The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials next weekend (August 30 to September 2).

The fences – ‘The Olympic Games Horses’, ‘The Planet’ and ‘The Sundials’ – have been combined to present a memorable feature complex in the Main Arena at Burghley towards the end of the well-received Captain Mark Phillips-designed course.