Well I’m sure regular followers of my blog have guessed that my lack of enthusiasm in writing about the European Championships relates to how we performed at the competition! However, the week itself was spectacular! The Welsh committee made a fabulous job of hosting the championships, from Dewi the Dragon to bucking broncos and from Welsh male voice choirs to human statues, the championship was a spectacular week where friends from across Europe got to meet and enjoy their time together.
I arrived at the Wales and West showground on Monday morning and spent the time setting up home for the week ahead, meeting new and old friends as they arrived throughout the day. England had the biggest base camp, as there were no ferry journeys to cope with and every rider brought their own lorry to feel at home for the week. There were somewhere in the region of 25 horseboxes, and compared to Germany’s one horse transporter and a family of tents, we were big!
Tuesday allowed every team time to practise on the all weather surface that we would be competing on. Blue took an instant dislike to the national flags flying around the ring, but as soon as the competition started this was forgotten and his mind was on the task in hand! Competition started on Wednesday for the new European Individual title. This had big prize for Mounted Games riders, who usually just race for the joy and pride of winning. The competition had a £1,000 prize for the overall winner and £100 to the winner of each race in the final!
Wednesday night saw us visiting Chepstow races and trying out our gambling skills. Mine were not too hot and I only managed to pick the winner in the final race - well finishing on a high is better than losing EVERY time! Team competition started on Thursday and the England team bonded quickly and well and we cruised through the first three heats winning each of them. The fourth heat on Saturday morning saw some hiccups and we took it as our 'bad' session. None of us were concerned, getting mistakes out of the way is much better than having them in the finals! We came second in the session, just behind France, the reigning open champions.
The finals started on Saturday afternoon and finished with 13 games on Sunday. Scotland was the only home nation who failed to make the main final, but showed they deserved to be there by winning the 'B final' convincingly with a massive points lead. The main final was very close; after the first part on Saturday afternoon the top six teams only had 6 points between 6th and 1st place, which was held by Wales. That is so close that the first race in the second part of the final could have reversed the order!
We had the evening to stew over how close the competition was and debate the day ahead. To give us something to think about however, the Individuals final was held during the evening. Janey and Elaine, both from our Shropshire team, had made the final and had gone through the semi-finals easily looking like strong contenders for the title. The final was amazing and I was disappointed I couldn’t cheer on my team usual mates as I was judging the competition! I had spent the week judging each session plus the semi-finals, so judging the final followed. Having seven very fast ponies racing is hard to call as they come over the line. In team events you have longer races and the riders are more spread out. Luckily I had the trusty video camera to check any calls that were close, and it meant I knew who had won before anybody else did. All in all the final was spectacular and Elaine took reserve champion while Janey took the title and the very unusual but gratefully received prize money, even if she did have to ask her Dad for £40 to go to the bar that night! Both of them rode brilliantly and it was great to have two Shropshire riders taking the top two places.
Sunday morning came and we watched all the other age groups complete their finals, with England winning the minis (under 12s), the under 14s and the under 17s. We wanted nothing more than to complete the set and come away with England winning a clean sweep. All we had to do as a team was stop making errors and get it right. We had plenty of speed in the England team, we just had to get the races right; but we failed to do it.
As the drizzle turned into rain and the final progressed, the team went through some very low points. We started to pull it back towards the end, but it was too late. We were pleased to find we had a run off with Northern Ireland for the bronze position and after winning, our spirits were lifted a little, only to have an official complaint put in to the committee about some of the points earlier in the final and to have a sincere apology and be told that after a correction, Northern Ireland and Ireland had the run off for the bronze, so we fell straight down to 5th! It was pretty gutting but it reflected the way the final had gone. Too many mistakes were made and we just couldn’t pull back the lead we had given the other teams. Blue as ever was a star throughout, even though we did knock Craig flying into the field of play during the pony express, where we circled the fifth rider who was stood at the top, and then had to cross the changeover line once he had stood back up! I apologise to Craig and hope there wasn’t too much sand in his mouth to spit out! It was great riding with Elley, Kirsty, Danny and Craig, but when it counted it just didn’t go to plan.
Congratulations to France who held their nerve and retained their Champion title from Belgium who took a well deserved silver position. Northern Ireland took the bronze after the run-off and Ireland had to settle with 4th. We had to take pride in representing our country and took 5th place. The home country, Wales, followed us in 6th and Sweden came 7th.
We had a final celebration night on the Sunday to congratulate all of the Champions, with a Wild West theme. Guns, hats and checked shirts ruled the evening and it was a lovely way to say goodbye to all our friends from across Europe. We partied late into the night and early into the morning and reality hit on Monday morning as we had to pack up after our week away and head back to work!
All in all for me the European Championships 2010 may have been a disappointing result, but it was a spectacular week, and Northern Ireland have a lot to live up to next year when it's their turn to host the Championships.
