The National Pony Club Quiz 2008

During February two teams from Talygarn took part in the Area 10 Pony Club Quiz neither team did tremdously well against the branches but as the highest placed Centre team, Chloe Carys Emily and Kate qualified for the National Pony Club Quiz Finals in Warwickshire. Last night the clocks went forward so getting up at 6.45am was really 5.45am. Chloe and Amelia (Amelia was in the Llangeinor Branch Team) travelled up with Chloe’s parents, Sharon and Mike and Carys Emily and Kate travelled with Freya and myself. Freya returned from Essex last night as she wanted to take the team to the quiz. It has become a bit of a ritual now to stop at McDonalds when going to Area or National Events, it used to be on the way home but now it seems to be breakfast as well. Mike left from Pontypridd and we left from Talygarn and without any communication at all managed to arrive at Mcdonalds in Evesham at the same time. We continued on through Stratford upon Avon and arrived in Warwickshire College, Moreton Morell at 11am Fortunately none of the kids were travel sick. The team took their place in the large hall and after the team managers briefing the quiz commenced. There were seventeen branches and nine centres competing for the best branch and best centre. Each Centre and Branch will have won at Area level to qualify. The Quiz consisted of 8 rounds. The first round was 15 questions on the Pony Club, which is always a tough round as their are so many rules and so much to know. Do you know the name of the executive body responsible for the day to day organising of the Pony Club apparently its called The Management Board. This was followed by Horses in Literature and Geography another stiff round in which I only knew 4 answers. Talygarn didn’t score well at all in these first two rounds but neither did anyone else. These were followed by the foot & shoeing/first aid and Odd one Out. These rounds went much better and by half time Talygarn were lying in Joint 4th place with a score of 89. Due to I think a fire the Cafeteria was not open and lunch was a long queue outside to a burger van, fortunately the weather was good. After Lunch there was a practical session which involved identifying objects and was answered individually. Round 6 was horse and pony care/feeding which was answered in pairs. A picture round next identifying famous riders and lastly round 8 was entitled Call the vet. After the scoring had taken place three Centre teams had a joint score and had to have tie break questions. Places were then called out from 9 th place. I felt our team hadn’t done too badly, and thought maybe 4th or 5th (I had assumed that the three teams that tied would have been in the first three places) when the result was called for fourth place and that was one of the three tie break teams I could see it dawn on them that they must have won. When Talygarn Centre was called out in first place they were thrilled Sharon and Freya screamed and jumped up and down. They received sashes, silver Salvas each, A Large Team Silver Salva to be engraved, Rosettes, Lunch bags and Tack boxes and had their photos taken for the Pony Club Website. They also had their photo taken with the winning Branch which was Deeside Pony Club. Talygarn had a final score of 189 the 2nd 3rd and 4th place centres scored 188, so it was a very close contest. Leaving Warwickshire College at 5pm we stopped again at McDonalds on the way home and arrived back around 8pm so it was a long day but well worth it. You have yet again put Talygarn on the map at Pony Club and we are very proud of you.

Posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 12:19 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.