Lord Rayleigh Farms, Terling.
Results:
1st For the Cresthaven Cup – Lannakers Quest of Tofts LRD - Glynis Hillier
2nd For the Pathfinder Cup – Dan Howth LRD - Geraldine Thompson.
3rd For the Crosspath Cup – Lannakers Quartz - LRB - Roy Tomlinson.
4th Marshepark Tramp LRD – Mick Elsey.
Best Essex Entry for the Royanne Cup - Lannakers Quest of Tofts - Glynis Hillier.
Judges Choice for the Oysterbed Cup - Lannakers Quest of Tofts - Glynis Hillier.
Report -
This was our final event for 2019 and we were very pleased to have been invited back to Lord Rayleigh Farms in Terling and we thank our hosts for their permission to use this large expanse of Sugar Beet for our test. Conditions for the day were variable, starting with some nice sunshine and a gentle breeze before we were visited by some much stronger winds and a period of heavy rain. Fortunately, by lunch time the inclement weather had passed, and the afternoon saw a return to a similar weather pattern as early morning. There is no doubt that the stronger winds and heavy rain played their part in making the middle two static tests challenging for all the competitors and the dogs!
We are grateful to our sponsors Masters Dog Foods who supplied bags of dog food for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places and to Sporting Saint. Our judges for the day were Sam Morley-Riches and Paul Wheeler, and again our thanks to them for giving up their day to judge for us. Thanks also to our helpers for the day, we couldn't run the tests without people willing to come and help and who don’t mind standing in the heavy rain throwing dummies!
The day started with a four dog walk up in the beet with two marks for each handler straight out in front, we had our "ace" dummy throwers Gordon & David so the dummies although long were high so the dogs and handlers had plenty of chance to mark the dummy. This gave the judges a good opportunity to see the dogs working at distance and their ability to hunt the beet. The beet was high and thick in places and the wind direction was changeable.
We then moved on to two static tests. The first test consisted of two marked retrievers to shot, both retrieves were on a similar line with the second dummy around 20 yards behind the first. The dogs were free to retrieve either dummy first and despite the difficult weather conditions this test was successfully completed by the majority of dogs.
The second static which was a mark to shot into the beet which became a memory with the first retrieve being a blind retrieve into a ditch on the edge of the wooded copse without shot.
Both retrieves proved difficult, with a number of the dogs being pulled towards the mark and needing to be handled onto the blind. The distance to be covered in the memory combined with the difficult weather conditions proved equally challenging. This was a test that many of the dogs found difficult.
After the second static test we stopped for lunch and the opportunity to dry out.
The fourth and final test of the day was a four dog walk up in pairs with two guns on the outside of the line around 10 yards ahead , a shot gun was fired and the first dog was sent across the line to retrieve a blind which had been preplaced some 15 yards ahead of the gun, as this dog returned to the line two further distraction shots were fired with a dummy thrown behind , the second dog of the pair was then send on command for the retrieve behind the line. This was then repeated so that each dog of the four had both a blind ahead of the line and a retrieve behind the line. Overall the dogs completed this test well with only a few dogs called up as they could not locate the blind.
The tests had proved challenging enough to separate the dogs and no run-off was required. The day finished with the raffle and tea and some very delicious cakes before the prize giving.
Congratulations to Glynis for her winning performance on the day and well done to all the competitors for making it a very enjoyable test.
Hope everyone has a good season and we will see you all again next year.