Our Area Open Qualifier was held at Hintlesham Hall Farm by kind permission of the landowners, Jamie & Richard Bostock, and Peter Elmy & Kevin Doughty who run training classes on the grounds. Our judges for the day were Kevin Doughty & Julian Mutimer. Once again we were kindly sponsored by Masters Dog Food, and Sporting Saints who kindly donated extra prizes. We also had Ray Hood of Country Trail Images on hand to take the most stunning photos, take a look at his web site www.country-trail-images.co.uk
With 32 entries the stewards, Brian Chesser & Doug Laflin had their work cut out to set tests that would challenge the dogs & handlers to provide worthy winners to represent the Essex Area at the Area Finals, & they certainly did deliver.
The first test, at first glance seemed a straight forward mark into water, however the fall was out of sight of the dogs & several dogs took the line to the splash only to find their entry into the water was blocked by dense cover, the dogs that run the track directly in front of them to enter the water seemed to fair much better.
The second test was a double retrieve in woodland, the first retrieve was a mark, again the dogs could not really see the fall and once the dog had been sent & was in the area, the handler lost sight of their dog & had to rely on the dog to hold the area until picked, the second retrieve was a blind with no shot at the top of bank, again the handler lost sight of their dog once in the area, despite the numerous bunkers most dogs made a fair job.
The third test was a mark thrown as a distraction with a blind retrieve on almost the same line but shorter in reeds, once in the area the retrieve took some picking and was a real test of the dog holding the area.,
The fourth test sorted the men from the boys! Firstly a marked retrieve was thrown, which would become a memory, a fair distance with two fences to negotiate. Once the mark was thrown the dogs were turned & walked to heel to the edge of the lake, where another mark was thrown the other side of the lake uphill some 150 yards plus. This definitely proved to be the most challenging test of the day, with only two dogs obtaining the maximum score of 20. A lot of dogs mis-marked & wanted to hold the reeds on the bank of the lake instead of pushing uphill onto open farmland to pick.
Everyone enjoyed the day and our judges provided us with worthy winners and a strong team to represent the Essex Area at the Finals.
1st Tracey Chesser Gunnerheath Amethyst LRB
2nd Abbey Crawley Almshoebury Persuasion of Riverlilly LRB
3rd Russell Gooding Birdsgreen Gideon LRD
4th Tracey Chesser Gunnerheath Fern LRB