OBH CHILTERNS TRI/TET. COMPETITION GT. WESTWOOD PARK/CHESHAM HIGH SCHOOL 19TH/20TH APRIL

Herts Hunt members were out in force at the above event.   The weekend started with the riding phase being held at Gt. Westwood Park, Kings Langley.  The following members took part:

Saturday - Riding Phase

Tadpoles - Celia Price tackled her first XC event and finished on a score of 1040 out of a possible 1400.  Well done Celia.  Unfortunately Celia had to withdraw from the remainder of the competition on Sunday due to a school trip.

Minis - Emma Stone, Isobel Price and Annabel Coppen all took part in the mini section of the Tet. competition. Annabel finished on maximum points of 1400 and was placed equal 4th in the Hunter Trial Section.  Both Emma and Isobel also completed very successful rounds putting our mini team in a very strong position for the next day.

Juniors - Phoebe Ward and Isobel Price represented Herts Hunt as individuals in this section.  Well done to Phoebe, after a less than ideal start due to transport problems, on completing the junior course when you had opted to ride the mini course!  Isobel managed a very good round finishing on 1350 points.

Seniors - Abbie Ward, Debbie Potten, Abi Mustoe, Amy Hannington, Libby Daniels

The tetrathlon rules states that a clear round warrants 1400 points with deductions made for subsequent errors. Our Herts Hunt riders all did really well with a clear round coming from Libby Daniels. All the other riders rode well although some gate opening practice is required! Unfortunately Abi Ward was not able to get to the cross country but it was great to have her there the next day so we could have a triathlon team.

Sunday - Swim, run and shoot phases

After a hectic Saturday, members then went on to complete the running, swimming and shooting sections on Sunday at Chesham High School.  Further Herts Hunt members joined in for just the Triathlon stage.

Tadpoles Triathlon - 1ST,  Freya Michalski, Liberty Fogden and Amber Newbury Barr were an extremely successful team in this section. These 3 members took part in just the shooting, swimming and running phases.  A very exciting team for the future!  The team WON, with Amber coming 2nd individually and taking best shoot and Liberty coming 4th individually.  All 3 girls were excellent and a special mention should go to Liberty as she must be the most improved Herts Hunt shot.  With the help of expert tuition from Paul Gibbins Liberty has managed to go from struggling to hit the target last year to achieving an extraordinary amount of bulls eyes. So take note, if you are struggling with your shoot score at the moment it can be improved upon.

Mini Triathlon - Sorrel Overy was an individual for this event.  Well done Sorrel.

Mini Tetrathlon -  1ST, carrying some very good scores forward from the riding phase, Emma, Annabel and Isobel continued to excel themselves and managed to go on and win this class.  Emma Stone came 2nd individually and was the best run of the day.  Annabel came 5th individually and also managed an incredible score of 920 in the shooting phase which unfortunately in this instance was not quite the best shoot of the day.  Isobel came 6th individually and narrowly missed out on the best swim of the day, it was a very exciting swim heat!  A fantastic shield will now be engraved with the Herts Hunt name for 2008!  Could this be a team for the Area competition in August?  They all show an enormous amount of potential.

Junior Tetrathlon - Isabel Price and Phoebe Ward carried their riding scores forward to Sunday.  Both Isabel and Phoebe are right at the lower end of the age group for this section and put in excellent performances.  Isabel did extremely well to be placed 8th overall. 

Seniors tetrathlon & triathlon teams - Abbie Ward, Debbie Potten, Abi Mustoe, Amy Hannington, Libby Daniels, Steph Gibbins, Kat Daniels The seniors had to get up early as they were the first to shoot. This did not go down well, however for once they seemed to be awake as the shooting scores were exemplary. Well, exemplary for the Herts Hunt senior team, with everybody achieving a personal best. Steph Gibbins and Abi Mustoe got the highest shoot scores in the senior triathlon and tetrathlon respectively and an enormous thank you must go to Paul Gibbins for making shooters out of the less than talented!

Though some controversy surrounded the running everyone enjoyed competing over a flatter course than at Thame and some excellent times came out of it. Amy Hannington, despite have some slight navigational problems received the very impressive running score of 808, and Debbie Potten achieved a personal best.

For the seniors, the final event of the day was the swimming. Kat Daniels swam really well to achieve second place in the Senior Girls Triathlon. Abi Mustoe’s violent tendencies were once more in evidence as her vice like grip crushed the life out of her poor, innocent goggles minutes before she was due to dive in. Luckily one of the kind hearted and small headed competitors from OBH Chilterns stepped in to lend Abi her goggles. We look forward to seeing everyone training hard in the future.

Overall it was a very successful day for Herts Hunt with all of our teams achieving the coveted first place. The winning triathlon team comprised of Abi Ward (5^th), Steph Gibbins (2^nd) and Kat Daniels (3^rd). Surprisingly, the Intermediate Girls Tetrathlon team also produced presentable scores; with individual placings for everyone and a team win. The tetrathlon team included Abi Mustoe (6^th); Libby Daniels (2^nd); and Debbie Potten (3^rd). In the Senior Girls Tetrathlon Amy Hannington also came 5^th in a very competitive field. The only appropriate way to celebrate was by a trip to the pub, which the seniors recognised with Debbie even bringing back a food bucket! All in all, a good day was had by everyone and we hope to see our fantastic Herts Hunt teams at the next Tetrathlon event on the 10^th and 18^th May. Keep up the high standard!

Herts Hunt really took centre stage in the results which just goes to show that all the training has paid off.  As a branch we particularly shone in the shooting phase, this is all down to the expert help we have received from Steph Gibbins Dad, Paul.  A huge thank you Paul.

An enormous thank you should also go to Stephs Mum, Sally who has helped with the swimming training and took on the role of team manager on Sunday morning.  This was not an easy task with several queries needing to be resolved.  Thank you very much Sally for keeping everyone calm and sorting all the queries out!  Thanks also to Ambers Mum, Kirsty for taking on the team managers role for the afternoon session.