Charlie Buckle was celebrating a sporting triumph on Saturday evening, but not the one that he might have imagined.

For Buckle, from Semer, near Hadleigh, had passed up the chance to ride at the inaugural running of the High Easter Racing Club Point-To-Point meeting, at High Easter, near Chelmsford, preferring to journey to Dublin to watch England bid for a grand slam in the Six Nations Rugby.

And while Dylan Hartley’s mob came up short at the Aviva Stadium, Buckle’s gelding Nightscape (pictured below, dark blue, light blue star), one of the outsiders for the Mens Open race, got up in the last few strides to beat the favourite, Burtredgipandgump, by a short head.