Blue Chip Championship 2020 Cancelled - Statement 17.12.20

Thursday 17 December 2020

Blue Chip Championship 2020 Cancelled - Statement 17.12.20

Please find below a statement from the Show Organisers of the Blue Chip Championships.

It is with great sadness and disappointment that following recent developments and today's announcement by the Government regarding the spread of Covid-19 that the Blue Chip Winter Show Jumping Championships that were due to take place from 28 December 2020 till 2 January 2021 have now been cancelled.

While we have made every effort to ensure the success of the re-scheduled event, we have been informed that following recent talks between Hartpury University and the Local Health Protection Team in Gloucester that any competitors residing within a Tier 3 area will not be permitted to travel to Hartpury Arena unless it is for work purposes.

With more areas moving into Tier 3 and Wales to go back into a National Lockdown on 28 December it has left it untenable to host a national final with such large areas of the country unable to participate. We are also conscious that the next Government announcement on Tier change or Lockdown would be due on the 30 December, which could close the event partly concluded.

When entries opened it was widely predicted that the Tier system put in place would continue the downward trend and that many areas in Tier 3 would drop to Tier 2 in the Government review on 16 December. This has not been the case and large parts of England have moved into the highest tier. With a national increase in Covid-19 cases we have a duty of care to all competitors, sponsors and officials to keep them safe and not to encourage the spread of this virus.

The support of our sponsors and officials has been amazing, we could not have even considered re-scheduling without their superb backing, we all owe them a massive debt of thanks. Full refunds will be paid to everyone entered, minus the My Riding Life booking fee, the Stripe online payment fee and administration fee. These will be processed as quickly as possible.

It was always a risk to attempt to re-schedule the Championships but please be assured that we have done our utmost to make this happen in the current unpredictable climate. We thank you for your support and we are bitterly disappointed not to be welcoming everyone to a festive Championships. The team at Show Direct have worked so hard for months to try to make this happen - we had lots of surprises ready which we hoped would have made it a very special event and something to remember in a year that most of us would like to forget, but sadly circumstances are now once more, beyond our control. Having done everything within our power to re-schedule the championships regrettably the 2020 finals have now been abandoned.

We will now focus on making the 2021 Blue Chip Championships in April extra special!
We wish everyone a safe and Happy Christmas and every success in 2021.

 
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