Isleham's History
In 2016, Isleham celebrated it's 25th anniversary of running one-day-event fixtures affiliated to British Eventing.
The first event was held after a Royal opening at the adjacent factory. The conversation followed the route “this course would be ideal for a BE competition”. The seed was set and the following year, in 1990, the first BE fixture took place. Organised by Col Wells and the committee off; Clem Tompsett, Peter Thompson, John Badcock, Albert Cook, Jackie Mason (Treasurer/Entries Secretary), Ali Butcher, Mrs Hutton, Dudley Thompson, Sue Thompson, Michelle Garrod and Isabel Fenn - Secretary. The Chief Steward for the event was Sir William Aldous with the Technical Advisor, David Merrett. The funds raised in the inaugural event were presented to the RDA, starting a long association of fundraising for the event.
The Committee may have changed over the years but one face hasn't, David who is the event's long serving Technical Advisor. We thank them for all their support over the last 25 years. Dudley is also ever present by assisting in the control box, or anywhere else he's needed.
25 year's ago the event ran over a single day with the results reading:
Novice section winners:
Junior Novice results:
When Clem made the decision to lay fields down to grass in the mid 70’s, for a rest, never did he imagine that more land would be taken out of farming to create this Eventing complex. So in the family's eyes, Clem did good and we are pleased to have welcomed so many competitors over the 25 years.
To Absent Friends...
Very sadly some much loved members of the Isleham team are no longer with us; Clem, Jacquie, Sue, Albert Cook and Sir William are all dearly departed and missed so very much.
The following words have been penned by our current Entries Secretary – Sarah about her Mother Jacquie:
"Jacquie was entries secretary for Isleham in their inaugural year, through to 2009. Her horse trials career spanned almost 40 years, beginning in 1971. Jacquie was Entries Secretary and Chief Scorer for over 60 events throughout the UK including Badminton and Burghley and played an instrumental part in the digitisation of event scoring and online entries. In 2000 Jacquie received the Millennium Award for her services to equestrianism and was voted BE Official of the Year in 2009.
The first event was held after a Royal opening at the adjacent factory. The conversation followed the route “this course would be ideal for a BE competition”. The seed was set and the following year, in 1990, the first BE fixture took place. Organised by Col Wells and the committee off; Clem Tompsett, Peter Thompson, John Badcock, Albert Cook, Jackie Mason (Treasurer/Entries Secretary), Ali Butcher, Mrs Hutton, Dudley Thompson, Sue Thompson, Michelle Garrod and Isabel Fenn - Secretary. The Chief Steward for the event was Sir William Aldous with the Technical Advisor, David Merrett. The funds raised in the inaugural event were presented to the RDA, starting a long association of fundraising for the event.
The Committee may have changed over the years but one face hasn't, David who is the event's long serving Technical Advisor. We thank them for all their support over the last 25 years. Dudley is also ever present by assisting in the control box, or anywhere else he's needed.
25 year's ago the event ran over a single day with the results reading:
Novice section winners:
- Ms A Watson riding Carlingford Christie
- Ms D Edmundson riding Seringa
- Ms J Turner riding De Angelis
- Mr J Pugh riding Woodside Ben
- Ms P Nolan (now Funnell) riding Dermot Kelly
Junior Novice results:
- 1st - Ms J Harley riding Cassaway
- 2nd - Ms S Brown riding Russian Roulette
- 3rd - Ms S Cutteridge (now Cohen) on Micky McGuire
When Clem made the decision to lay fields down to grass in the mid 70’s, for a rest, never did he imagine that more land would be taken out of farming to create this Eventing complex. So in the family's eyes, Clem did good and we are pleased to have welcomed so many competitors over the 25 years.
To Absent Friends...
Very sadly some much loved members of the Isleham team are no longer with us; Clem, Jacquie, Sue, Albert Cook and Sir William are all dearly departed and missed so very much.
The following words have been penned by our current Entries Secretary – Sarah about her Mother Jacquie:
"Jacquie was entries secretary for Isleham in their inaugural year, through to 2009. Her horse trials career spanned almost 40 years, beginning in 1971. Jacquie was Entries Secretary and Chief Scorer for over 60 events throughout the UK including Badminton and Burghley and played an instrumental part in the digitisation of event scoring and online entries. In 2000 Jacquie received the Millennium Award for her services to equestrianism and was voted BE Official of the Year in 2009.
