Novice Working Test
Chattisham Lane Hintlesham Sunday 15th October 2023
RESULTS:
1st Place for the Essex Area Autumn Cup Pigeonman Belle Starr -LRB Mari Jackson
2nd Place Ravencote Daisy -LRB Jennie Hankey
3rd Place Brindlebay Ulla -LRB Kim Prentice
4th Place Teywillow Queen Bee -LRB Geoff Allen
Certificate of Merit Arminghall Teal -LRD Simon Wells
Elder Athos Trophy for the Highest Placed Essex Area Novice Handler Lee Harmer with Delfleet Pied Wagtail
Well once again we were stunned by the number of entries received for this test, it is certainly proving to be very popular!
Firstly we must thank Kevin Doughty of Highseas Gundogs for once again allowing us to use his ground, and thanks too for their continued support to our sponsors Skinners Dog Foods.
We somehow always seem to be very lucky with the weather, and although we had a cold wind, it was a dry sunny day with some lovely blue skies. Stewards for the day were Jackie Smith & Cath Elsey and four tests were set on opposite sides of the ground, so a degree of walking was involved, but we all got our "step count" up! Our judges for the day were Glynis Hillier, Liz Ingram , Keith Foster and due to unforseen circumstances a very late hour change saw our chairman Mike Lawrence step in.
Test one judged by Glynis was a mark with a blind this was in a very open space with a run out down and up a hilly part of the ground, strangely a lot of the dogs did better on the blind than the mark!
Liz was judging test two, and despite being in the sun poor Liz ended up toward the top of the hill with a chilly wind, sorry Liz. This test comprised a mark and memory, with the first dummy thrown to the dog's left dropping to the corner of the drill which became the memory and then the second dummy was collected first as a mark, which was a long retrieve downhill, across the ditch and up hill again, there were a few failures along the way but the majority of dogs made a good job of this one.
Test three was Keith with a straight mark across the undulating rough ground followed by a hunting exercise for a blind without shot under a tree with three dummies placed out to also make sure the dogs didn't swap. A lot of the dogs all did very well with plenty of top scores given.
The final test with Mike was a bit of a twist on the test we ran last year. There was a short walk-up with the judge and a shot fired and a mark thrown in front, which was retrieved, then a further short walk-up with another shot in front, but this "bird" had actually gone away, however there was a blind retrieve to be collected to the left of the handler, some dogs were drawn to the shot, but the majority of the dogs succeeded.
There were two two dog run offs, for 2nd and 4th places.
Tea and cake were enjoyed along with the raffle while the paperwork was completed prior to the awards.
First place for the Autumn Cup and dropping only two points all day was our Working Test Secretary Mari Jackson, who got a huge cheer and her thank you speech made us all laugh. Mari and Dora clearly suit this ground as Mari was the top Novice Handler last year winning the Elder Athos trophy, and I think she has already said to Lee that there is a challenge there!!
After the run off Jennie Hankey was 2nd and 3rd was Kim Prentice and another co-incidence she won 3rd last year. After a run off for 4th place saw Geoff Allen taking 4th and CoM to Simon Wells, well done all.
Our other award is for the highest placed Essex Area member novice handler which is the Elder Athos trophy and this was deservedly awarded to Lee Harmer.
Finally last but by no means least, our thanks to our four lovely judges, all the committee who helped Ali, Barbara, Fred, Paul and David either stewarding, placing, throwing doing lunches, cake making.....the list goes on and we are also very lucky to have a good turnout of non committee to help for which we are extremely grateful, so a big thank you Linda, Frank, Colin, Andy and Andy as well.
So that is our final event for 2023 and lovely to end the year on yet another successful event.
