Area Finals 2022 | United Retriever Club

Winners

The winning Team, The Anglia Cup, first place, Border Counties and Cotswold

URC Inter Area Finals Winster 26 June 2022

REPORT BY Jayne Coley

This year’s Area Finals was hosted by the Northern Area at Winster in The Lake District, Cumbria by kind permission of Mr. Brian Scowcroft on Sunday 26th June, 2022. 27 dogs took part – nine teams, each with 3 handlers.

Winster is the most fabulous ground with marshy cotton grass, birch scrub and large bracken filled valleys producing many undulating bunkers, plus a large lake covered with lily pads. Gary Collier made an excellent job of setting the tests, four in the morning and four after lunch. Rain and strong wind enhanced the challenge of some of the retrieves.

Jennie Dimmock, Julian Morgan and I immediately jelled as a team and we thoroughly enjoyed running our dogs. We were delighted to finish the day having picked all of our retrieves. The day was superbly organized and, after completing each test, we had to move on to the next one, so we didn’t know how the other teams were getting on. Jen has run in several Area Finals and was awarded Top Dog when the event was last here at Winster 11 years ago. I was one of the judges on that occasion. It was Julian’s first time and his armband number dictated that he, along with 8 other handlers, had the most difficult retrieve of the day – a very long blind (well over 200 yards) with many bunkers along the way in the strong wind - which he and his 5-year-old bitch (owned by Gill Wright) successfully picked.

It was great to have the company of the URC’s President Mrs. Iris Wright and her husband Frank as well as the Chairman, Mr. Nick Coates who made the long journey up to The Lake District to support this event.

It was such a lovely surprise when the awards were announced to find out that we had won, beating the Northern Area by 3 points, and I was thrilled to learn that my dog, Garbutt, was Top Dog… What an amazing end to a truly fabulous day!

On behalf of the Border Counties and Cotswold Area and my team mates, Jen and Julian, I would like to thank the Northern Area, headed by two of the great stalwarts of the gundog world, Nick and Penny Aubrey and their brilliant team of helpers for their fabulous hospitality and professionalism to produce such a memorable Area Finals. A big thank you to Gary Collier for setting really good tests and, of course, the four judges – Wayne Mitchell, Keith Barnes, Kevin Butler and Stuart Dunn for their time and sensible judging. A final thank you to all the other teams who provided a lovely sporting atmosphere.

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