NEXT week will see many of the best young show-jumpers in Britain gathering at the Wales and West Showground near Newport to contest an international under-21 meeting that starts this Thursday.

The main attraction will be the Junior and Young Riders Nations Cup team competitions for riders aged 18 and under, and 21 and under, on Saturday. Teams are expected from Germany, Belgium, Ireland and Holland and there will be home interest in the young rider team.

This is because Matthew Broome, whose father is former Olympic medallist David Broome, is hosting the event.

The 20-year-old is one of five riders chosen for the British squad with his top ride Hopes Are High, owned by Lady Harris, and the final four team riders will be selected at the show itself. Matthew is joined by fellow Welsh rider Sian Price, from Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff's Sophie Heaven has been named on the junior squad.

Both teams are sponsored by Accenture, the world's largest management and information technology consultancy, who have been backing equestrian sport for four years now.

There will also be individual Grand Prix competitions for both age groups on the final day of the meeting as well as a host of other affiliated classes over the four days.

* Abergavenny's Lynne Bevan made the line-up in the top final at the Blue Chip National Show Jumping Championships held in the West Midlands under the guiding hand of renowned course designer Kelvin Bywater.

Lynne finished ninth and in the prize money in the Blue Chip Grand Prix, a class full of international riders and won by Tim Stockdale. She rode her long-time partner Millbrook Esquire, although the pair have not competed together for nearly two years.

"I've been riding in other yards and the horse was with Olympic eventer Blyth Tait for a year," said Lynne, who has ridden for Britain at Nations Cup level and is one of Britain's most stylish lady riders. "In January 2001 I went off to America for three months and I then went to work for a dealer in Holland. Then I had a heavy fall in Italy last June and suffered a neck injury which meant I had to return home and have six months off."

Millbrook Esquire had only jumped "about six rounds in competition" since last May and just "ran out of puff" in the Grand Prix jump-off, where he had one fence down.

The horse, who is 14 now, is jumping better than ever after his two years off," Lynne continued. "I'm aiming him for the National Ladies' Championship at Royal Windsor Horse Show in May, a title we won in 2000. The foot and mouth stopped the show from running last year so we are still the holders of this title. It's a big step up from what he's been doing lately but he's going so well I want to try it."

Lynne has recently left her Welsh home to work for ex-international and renowned competition horse producer Derek Ricketts, at Bicester in Oxfordshire, and should be seen more often on the show-jumping circuit this year.