MALMESBURY School’s intermediate showjumping team have made it to the National Schools Championships for the second year in a row.

The school will take part in the competition at Addington in October after coming through the considerable challenge of qualification at Summerhouse Equestrian & Training Centre in Gloucester.

Riders competed in four-strong teams at three different levels against other schools from the region. Each of the three Malmesbury teams placed and there were several individual placings too.

The Malmesbury team of Miranda King (Kenmor Gold), Paige Davy (Zippy), Rosie Pyle (Honeywell Boy) and Kirsty Poulton (Crystal) led the intermediate 90cm class right through the competition, with both Pyle and Poulton jumping clear.

However, Royal High School from Bath put in an excellent set of clear rounds to come first, pipping Malmesbury at the post, although they still qualified for the national competition.

Malmesbury School have only run equestrian teams for two years and have already constructed several strong teams.

In the Mini 70cm class (Isabel Stevens, Lottie Iliffe-Moon, Tash Bailey and Freya Dibble) narrowly missed out on qualification after coming third.

The Novice team of Freya Dibble, Paige Davy, Rosie Pyle and Miranda King also impressed as they came fourth in their class.

  • MARLBOROUGH’S Andrew Nicholson was among the Advanced winners at the Weston Park Horse Trials in Shropshire.

He topped Advanced Section J on Quimbo, moving up to win when dressage leader William Fox-Pitt added 16 cross-country time penalties to his score.

Quimbo came home with just 9.2 time penalties, finishing two marks ahead of a strong field.

Nicholson, the New Zealand Olympic medallist, could have made it a double in Advanced Section L, finishing second on 2011 Burghley runner-up Nereo.

They ended up two marks behind Lower Stanton St Quinton’s Kitty King and Zidante, a winner of the Somerley Park CIC** International title at the end of March.

Nicholson also had to settle for second in Advanced Section A this time on one of his three possible Badminton entries, Avebury.

Highworth’s Paul Tapner was runner-up in Advanced Section K on Wickstead Didgeridoo - the horse’s best Advanced result to date - moving up from fifth after dressage with a fine double clear.

Tapner, winner of Badminton in 2010 with Inonothing, was also seventh on his other advanced ride Kilronan.

West Littleton’s Harry Meade was third on his Open Intermediate ride Tinka’s Time and Membury’s Laura Collett was second in an Intermediate section on Allora 3.