Pipe band gives British team a second wind

Conditions were almost perfect for the Aga Khan Cup. A strong northeasterly breeze blew in off Anglesea Road.

An even stronger South American pan-pipes band blew in from under the main stand. Those of us in the press box were well sheltered from the breeze. But we were completely at the mercy of the pan-pipes band, which played up a storm right behind us.

There were a lot of time faults during the competition, as riders faced the breeze up the grandstand side of the course and then turned into the teeth of the pan-pipes combo on the gallop past the Anglesea stand. In fact there were a high number of faults generally for an Aga Khan Cup. No doubt stiff fences were the main factor, although Ecuadoran versions of Feelings, Chiquitita, and the theme from Titanic couldn't have helped.

Only the Great Britain team seemed to thrive on the music. When Michael Whitaker completed the first half of the competition to the strains of Danny Boy ("the pan-pipes, the pan-pipes are calling . . . "), one exasperated equestrian correspondent behind me muttered: "Somebody shoot that band." Meanwhile, Whitaker was scoring yet another clear round for the British, in what was becoming - as the PA man put it - "a master-class in showjumping".

For Ireland, it was a competition within a competition. Propping up the Samsung Super League, and short one of their top jumpers (Jessica Kürten having refused at the Cian O'Connor-on-the-same-team obstacle), the home team needed to finish ahead of either the Netherlands or Belgium, or preferably both. But with Kürten's replacement, Clem McMahon, struggling, it was a close-run thing.

International showjumping is like the Eurovision Song Contest these days, what with scores given in both English and French, and Ireland facing relegation. The key difference is that the biggest cheers in showjumping are reserved for those who score "nul points". Unfortunately McMahon got the dreaded "douze points" in both his rounds, and the magic "nul" escaped even O'Connor, who had a fence down, twice.

There was a relatively happy ending, however, when anchor-man Billy Twomey completed the team's first clear round of the day at the very end, to get Ireland off the bottom. The Belgians finished ahead. But the Dutch have replaced us in the league's Netherlands, at least for now.

Back at the business end of the competition, the British were having a wobble. Uncannily, this coincided with the pan-pipes band taking a breather. Clearly unnerved by the silence, John Whitaker and William Funnell had 28 faults between them.

Mercifully the pipers returned and encouraged anew, Michael Whitaker, on Portofino, did enough to hold off the Germans by a single point.