Star Shropshire sportsman Oliver Townend was today attempting to beat the travel crisis gripping the UK and complete a marathon journey to America to keep alive his hopes of landing a £230,000 jackpot.

Eventing ace Townend, who lives at Dudleston Heath, near Ellesmere, is due to compete in the Rolex Grand Slam in Kentucky which gets under way on Thursday.

The eventing Grand Slam and a lucrative prize is up for grabs for Townend after his victories at Badminton and Burghley last year.

But his plans – he was originally due to fly out of Heathrow this morning – have been thrown into turmoil by the grounding of planes in the UK due to the volcanic ash cloud.

Instead, Townend drove from his Shropshire home to Crewe yesterday morning where he caught a 9am train to London.

He then boarded a Paris-bound Eurostar before getting a taxi from the French capital to Madrid, a 14-hour journey which cost around £1,600.

He is booked on a flight from Madrid to America at 3.30pm this afternoon and will then have to travel some 1,000 miles north from Miami to Lexington.

“I want to be there to represent Britain and this is the biggest moment of my career so far,” said the 27-year-old Townend.

“I was sitting in the back of a cab trying to keep the drivers awake. My entire career has been building up to a moment like this and I am not going to let it slip away just because of a volcano in Iceland.”

The two horses Townend will ride, Ashdale Cruise Master and ODT Master Rose, both flew out to America last Tuesday before the travel problems began.

The event is due to start on Thursday with the dressage, with the cross-country and show-jumping on Saturday and Sunday.

Shropshire golfer Jonathan Gidney was due to fly out from Luton to Marrakesh yesterday to compete in the Moroccan Classic on the Challenge Tour later this week, but that event has been postponed.

UEFA have confirmed that this week’s two Champions League semi-final first leg games between Inter Milan and Barcelona and Bayern Munich and Lyon will take place as scheduled.

A decision on whether Thursday’s Europa League last four ties involving Liverpool and Fulham will be played is expected shortly.

By JAMES GARRISON