Hickstead (GBR), 20 July 2012 – The Irish produced the shock of the season when beating crack sides from Germany and France to win the seventh leg of the FEI Nations Cup 2012 series at Hickstead (GBR) this afternoon.
Trailing at the bottom of the league table after an inconsistent run that included a miserable last-place finish in Falsterbo, Sweden just seven days ago, Robert Splaine’s side appeared to have it all to do in this penultimate round of the eight-leg tournament. But they came out with all guns blazing to finish with just four faults for a definitive victory over the French who completed with eight, while Germany slotted into third with 12. The host nation lined up fourth when collecting a total of 20 faults, and Sweden and Belgium shared fifth with 24 apiece. A first-round total of 20 put paid to Dutch chances and they concluded the day with 28 faults on the board for second-last spot ahead of the Swiss, whose 40-fault result left them last by a long margin.
As always, the Hickstead fences took their toll, but faults were spread all around the track set by Great Britain’s Bob Ellis – the man who will build the courses for the forthcoming London Olympic Games at Greenwich Park.
