Equestrianism: Sam’s the man

Dec 19 2008 Chester Chronicle

AFTER pulling out all the stops, Sam Ecroyd brought home the only prize for The King’s School’s equestrian team at a national competition.

Having qualified earlier in the year, 16 teams, mainly from southern schools, took part in the National Schools Equestrian Association Jumping with Style Championships at Bedfordshire.

The King’s team had qualified for two classes but unfortunately the rules meant that only three of their team of four riders could take part, leaving them handicapped as only the top three scores counted for each team.

Sam, 11, from Holywell, Ben Stratton, 11, from Tarporley, and former pupil Lucy Ormrod made up the team.

In the 2ft 6ins jump class, both Ben and Sam had clear rounds but their total score put the team out of the running.

Sam did achieve the highest score of the day and went on to win the individual competition.

Ben was only a few marks behind and finished fifth overall out of 60 riders.

In the 2ft 9in class, the course was extremely technical and testing. Of the 16 teams, nine were eliminated.

Ben had some bad luck and picked up eight faults. Sam was last to go and really carried the flag, jumping a beautiful clear round, again gaining top marks and qualifying for the individual competition where he collected four faults. Ben also received a fourth place in the 2ft 9in warm-up class.