UPDATED TO SUNDAY 14 APRIL 2024

ARMSTRONG/MANSELL NOVICE HORSE CHAMPIONSHIP (Wessex & W. Mercian Areas)

Group: Area Awards

Brief Biography

 

Brian Armstrong was born in Warwickshire on 23 May 1953, and died aged 62, succumbing to pancreatic cancer to which he made no concession - a dedication that earned him universal respect. A life-time devotee of Point-to-Pointing, he kept scrapbooks of pictures as a child before becoming a photographer in his own right. His photographs were first published In Hunter Chasers and Point-to-Pointers in 1992, and he quickly became a familiar sight on the racetrack with camera in hand. In the new millennium he became the Wessex Area’s press officer, a role he shared with his wife Gill (who sadly died almost exactly a year after her husband in October 2016). Brian’s career was in the naval defence industry but after concentrating full-time on racing he quickly became very well-known as P-t-P correspondent for Horse & Hound. By nature a quiet and reserved man, he was most methodical and meticulous, and revelled in the minutiae of the sport. He built a formidable library in addition to his photographic archive and frequently swept the board in racing quizzes and competitions.

Peter Mansell (1947-2022) who lived in Cheltenham, was the West Midlands (now West Mercian) PtP Area PRO for more than 30 years and had started reporting results and stories to the specialist PtP press 20 years earlier. He was a friendly man, quiet and unassuming, a real Pointing ‘nut’ who liked nothing more than to see his local horses triumph in other Areas and on NH courses. He loved every aspect of the sport and amassed a sizeable collection of racecards. His job at GCHQ at least once involved a posting to the Far East but nevertheless he still managed to know exactly what was happening in the racing scene at home.

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This perpetual Trophy is awarded to the Champion Novice Horse in the Wessex and West Mercian P-t-P Areas. First awarded in 2019, it is presented (with a memento) at the Awards presention event in the winner's Area. The trophy perpetuates the former Western Daily Press Young Horse Award first awarded in the 1990s.

To be eligible to score points for this Award a horse:

•  Must be qualified with a Hunt affiliated to the Wessex or West Mercian P-t-P Areas

•  Must have run in a P-t-P Maiden race in the current P-t-P season.

 

 

Scoring

Points can be scored in any P-t-P race or hunter chase in GB up to the close of the Wessex or former West Mercian P-t-P season (whichever is the later).

Scoring: 10 pts for 1st, and (except in Maiden P-t-P races) 6 pts for 2nd, and 3 pts for 3rd

In the case of a dead heat, the points for the particular position shall be added to that of the next position and divided equally between those involved.

 

Past Winners

Current Standings