We were welcomed back to this great venue by very kind permission of the Newton family and we are extremely grateful for their ongoing support for the club.
There is a good variety of terrain allowing for different tests to be set including woods, water and rolling hillside.
Our four judges were Rodger Ketley, Caroline Heasman, Kelvin Smith and Aaron Wright who was judging his first test, thank you all for giving up your Sunday to judge for us.
Our thanks too for Skinners dog food sponsoring the club with vouchers awarded to 1st to 3rd in each category.
We also are so lucky to have a great team of helpers along with the committee, members and non members all happy to come and spend the day helping from erecting the "new gazebos!" throwing dummies, placing dummies, stewarding groups, making lunch, cakes, selling raffle tickets and clearing up at end of day. A huge thank you to Gordon & David, Frank, Graham, Andy, Nick, Rob, Alice , Lizzie and Sue along with Mari, Jackie, David from committee and our two stewards Mike and Cath.
So yet again we got lucky with the weather! A dry day, which brightened up with some sunshine in the afternoon, however we did have to contend with strong gale force winds, which certainly affected the dogs and also made it very interesting putting up and taking down our new gazebos!!
Test 1: Set on the hill, judged by Aaron and was a short walk up with the judge and then a shot fired to the far left with a single mark thrown down hill, this looked a relatively straightforward retrieve but the wind played a big part and many dogs lost their mark and struggled to work with the wind. After the retrieve the competitor and judge continued to walk, another shot fired and dummy thrown, but this time the competitor and judge walked further on before turning to take the retrieve as a memory.
Test 2: This was in the woods and judged by Kelvin, Novice dogs had a marked memory to the left and a mark retrieve in front, both were easily achievable but if the dogs didn't mark the handlers needed to and this caught several out! The SP had a mark in front with a blind in the same place.
Test 3: Judged by Caroline was a mark into the trees at the top of an uphill track, followed by a blind retrieve in a different area of the trees with several dummies out to ensure no swapping!
Test 4: Was in the lake with a mark in the water followed by a blind along the track for the SP and for the Novice/Veteran the mark became a memory as the blind was collected first, Rodger judged this test. The strong wind made it trickier for the dogs as this made the dummy drift for the memory retrieve.
The day ended with the customary tea and cake along with the raffle, so despite the wind a good day with worthy winners in each category was had by all.
RESULTS
Novice
1st Delfleet Pied Wagtail LRB Handler: Lee Harmer winning Sagadawn Cup
2nd Astraglen Frazier LRD Handler: Gerald Silvey winning Flightline Cup
3rd Websend Tab LRD Handler: Tom Lowe winning Crosspath Cup
4th Meerumoon Cosmos LRD Handler: Doug Laflin
Com Ashport Pennylane of Heronfen LRB Handler: Georgina Bryant
Veteran
1st Ardmuir Field Pansy LRB Handler: Jennie Hankey winning the Essex Area Spring Cup
2nd Tildaross Byron LRD Handler: Chris Johnson
3rd Lannakers Quset of Tofts LRD Handler: Glynis Hillier
4th Brockaghs Fionnuala LRB Handler: Sue Palmer
Special Puppy
1st Hollowgate Kansas of Rushbrigg LRB Handler: Sam Morley-Riches
Judges Choice for the Ron Bendall Trophy won by Novice Delfleet Pied Wagtail owned and handled by Lee Harmer
