2025 LEAGUE WINNERS ANNOUNCED
November 12, 2024
British Team Chasing has crowned its league champions for 2024 in a series that went right to the wire at the final event of the season, the Essex and Suffolk. We could not run this championship without the generous sponsorship of Premier Performance and Stuart Nichols Waste Disposal, who provided wonderful rosettes and prizes for the winners and runners up.
Having lost the spring season to the weather, it all came down to the autumn events, with seven team chases surviving further deluges.
In the Premier Performance Open League, Fox Grant Dot Com secured the title with a last-gasp win at the Essex and Suffolk.
It’s been a season of trials and tribulations for the reigning national champions with several riders and horses out of action, but Will Grant and Phil Nichols recruited Alice Homer and Joe Neal from the Wishful Thinkers for an impressive spin around the big hedges at Semer. Will gave them an awesome lead on the evergreen Skipper Robin, fresh out of retirement. They also took the runner-up slot at the Cotswold and third at the Grafton.
Team Ride Away I suffered a ‘crash and burn’ at the Essex and Suffolk, but a win at the Cotswold and victories in the Warwickshire, Kimblewick and Heythrop inter (which score half marks for open teams) gave them the runner-up prize.
Cupid Stunts showed impressive consistency for third, having been placed in the Grafton and Cotswold opens, but were at their best at Semer, showing the ultimate in teamwork to conquer the track.
The Stuart Nichols Waste Disposal Intermediate League was ultra-competitive once again, but here Team Ride Away 4 had hit the ground running at the Warwickshire and won five of the seven events.
At the Essex and Suffolk it was another great effort, make all the more impressive by the fact that Luke Bacon was riding Dai Harrison’s Prince Khan for only the second time, and Will Badlan stepped in to ride De Rasher Counter for Roddy Stanning at the last moment. Also on the new theme, Amber Bradshaw’s Cool Choice is in his first season team chasing as are Ellie Mitchell and GG!
Eternal Optimists pressed them all the way with wins at the Grafton and Cotswold, plus four second places, and they never fail to produce an exciting round.
Credit should also go to some impressive performances by Neilson’s Foursome (5th) who challenged the leading teams throughout the season, and to Gloucestershire Equine Vets, who started the season in novice classes and then stepped up to inter to get on the leaderboard.
British Team Chasing Chairman Roddy Stanning said:
“It’s been a fantastic autumn season with brilliant competition between the teams and we appreciate how everyone has joined in with the spirit of the leagues and made them so exciting right down to the final event. We owe a huge vote of thanks to our sponsors Premier Performance and Stuart Nichols Waste Management for their support of the leagues.”
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