Irish Super Star in Dublin

The home side demolished the opposition at the penultimate leg of the 2004 Samsung Super League in Dublin yesterday when the Irish at last shook off the horrors of their last few months of crippling controversy. Following huge media attention over the dismissal and eventual reinstatement of Eddie Macken who along with Colonel Ned Campion now manages the Irish team, the Irish public were watching this particular performance with enormous interest and the crowd went wild with delight when the beleaguered team held their nerve to win against all the odds. The French were chasing a third successive victory at this fixture and were favourites along with Belgium before the competition began. Clear rounds from both Marc van Dijck (Verelst Roxanne) and Koen Vereecke (Qualite vd Begijnakker) and four-fault results from both Philippe Lejeune (Kashmir van Schuttershof) and Bert Prouve (Reggi Roosters van Betz) left Belgium out in front after the first round carrying just four faults while France, USA, Italy and Ireland shared runner-up spot with eight faults at this stage. Clear rounds are always the deciding factor however and Ireland’s ability to produce three of these in the second round made all the difference. Single errors from Lejeune and van Dijck and 12 faults for Prouve saw them plummet down the order and when the British, Americans and French could manage only two of these it was the Irish who came out on top. It went right down to the wire however as it was left to the last man into the ring for the home side, Billy Twomey riding Luidam, to prevent a jump-off with the French. The French had completed with 12 faults on the board after fault-free rounds from Patrice Delaveau (Envoye Special) and Christian Hermon (Ephebe Forever Ecolit), four faults from Jen-Marc Nicolas (JPC Modesto Equifoam) and the discard score of eight from Laurent Goffinet and Flipper d’Elle who were thrilling to watch as they went clear first time out. As Twomey rode into the ring you could hear a pin drop. "I was really nervous" he said afterwards, "but its always the same in this kind of situation and you just have to get on with it" so he did just that. He may have had an extra edge to his determination as he travels to Athens but only as reserve since Luidam could not be declared a definite Olympic starter due to health problems which now appear to have been sorted out. He proved that he is true Olympic material when keeping his cool to come home clear which left Ireland on their first-round total of eight faults while France had to settle for runner-up spot with 12 and the British and Americans shared third with a total of 16 on the board. This result has now made some significant changes to the Samsung Super League leaderboard. The French remain at the head of the table with 44.3 points but the British have overtaken the Germans by a margin of 0.2 points and the Dutch, last today after a disappointing 40-fault result, are in fourth. Belgium lies fifth while the Irish have moved further out of the danger zone by improving to sixth position with 25.5 points, just however 0.5 ahead of the USA. For Italy it still looks gloomy. A total of 32 faults today did nothing to help their chances and with just 10 points to their credit after seven rounds of the series they must surely now be looking relegation in the face. It seems not even double-points at next months Final in Barcelona can save them now…. Results: 1.Ireland 8 faults: Irish Independent Annabella/Cian O’Connor 8/0, Heritage Fortunus/Marion Hughes 4/4, Quibell/Jessica Kurten 4/0, Luidam/Billy Twomey 0/0. 2. France 12 faults: Flipper d’Elle/Laurent Goffinet 0/8, Envoye Special /Patrice Delaveau 8/0 , Ephebe Forever Ecolit/Christian Hermon 12/0, JPC Modesto Equifoam/Jean-Marc Nicolas 0/4. Equal 3. Great Britain 16 faults: Marius Claudius/Robert Smith 16/0, Luc/Richard Davenport 4/16, Cabri d’Elle/Scott Smith 8/4, Arko/Nick Skelton 0/0. Equal 3. USA 16 faults: Lutopia/Molly Ashe 8/0, Oliver 111/Judy Garofalo 0/8, Clasiko/Lauren Hough 8/8, Caya/Sheila Burke 0/0. 5. Belgium 20 faults: Philippe Lejeune/Kashmir van Schuttershof 4/4, Verelst Roxanne/Marc van Dijk 0/4, Reggi Roosters van Betz/Bert Prouve 4/12, Qualite vd Begijnakker/KoenVereecke 0/8. 6. Germany 28 faults: Diamonds Daylight/Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst 4/8, Argelith Stakkato/Eva Bitter 16/4, Farina/Rene Tebbel 8/4, Aboyeur/Heinrich-Hermann Engemann 4/4. 7. Italy 32 faults: Doublediss/Andrea Bracci 16/4, D’Artagnan/Luca Carini 4/8, Askoll Peter Pan/Alessia Marioni 4/12, Ability da Lagoa/Piergiorgio Bucci 0/16. 8. The Netherlands 40 faults: Norit Larino/Peter Geerink 12/4, Miss Montana/Emile Tacken 8/8, Billy Orange/Roelof Bril 12/0, Broere VDL Atlantic/ Wout-Jan van der Schans 8/8. Dublin Horse Show – the seventh leg of the series took place in Dublin on Friday August 6th. Full details on website www.dublinhorseshow.com. Show Director is Gerry McAuliffe – gerry.mcauliffe@rds.ie, Show Secretary is Brian Reid and Press Officer is Fiona Sheridan – fiona.sheridan@rds.ie or telephone ++3531 6680866. SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE 2004 LEADERBOARD (AFTER ROUND 7 IN DUBLIN): France – 44.3 Great Britain – 32.5 Germany – 32.3 The Netherlands – 29.5 Belgium – 28.3 Ireland – 25.5 USA – 25.0 Italy – 10.0. SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE 2004 CALENDAR OF EVENTS: ROUND 1, La Baule (Fra) 6-9 May; ROUND 2, Rome (Ita) 27-30 May; ROUND 3, Lucerne (Sui) 3-6 June: ROUND 4, Rotterdam (Ned) 17-20 June; ROUND 5, Aachen (Ger) 13-18 July; ROUND 6, Hickstead (GBR) 21-25 July; ROUND 7, Dublin (Irl) 4-8 August; ROUND 8 and FINAL, Barcelona (Esp) 16-19 September. YOU CAN SEE IT ON TV: The MBPtv schedule for Dublin Horse Show is as follows: RTE (Host) Ireland - Live 6 August 13.25, Delayed Live 6 August 23.35 RAI (Italy) - Live/delayed live TVE Teledeporte (Spain) – Live/delayed live Equidia (France) – Delayed live 6 August 18.00, Repeat 8 August 21.30 VRT – Live/delayed live Eurosport (Pan Europe) – Highlights 11 August 22.00, 12 August 09.00 Finnish Sport TV (Finland) - Highlights 16 August 19.00 Sport TV (Portugal) - Highlights XXP (Germany) – Highlights 21 August 19.00 CNBC Europe – Highlights 21 August 15.00 Fox World (Middle East) – Highlights 2 September 22.00 Horse TV (USA) – Highlights 29 August 17.00, 4 September 17.00 CNBC Asia – Highlights 22 August 15.00 ESPN Star Sports (Asia, Taiwan, India) – Highlights 18 August 18.00, 19 August 07.00 and 10.00, 20 August 16.30, 21 August 07.00, 27 August 19.00, 28 August 04.00 and 29 August 04.00. M-Net (Pan Africa) – Highlights 27 August 19.00, 28 August 04.00, 29 August 04.00 and 10.00, 30 August 06.00. SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE – NATIONAL PRIDE, INTERNATIONAL PASSION! You can access all the latest Samsung Super League news and information on website www.samsungsuperleague.com and don’t forget that Biographies on all Riders competing in the series are available at http://bios.horsesport.org.