RESULTS
Novice
!st Nathansgreen Duga LRD Handler: Mick Elsey winning Sagadown Cup
2nd Casblaidd Chizel FCRD Handler: Jacqui Crew winning Flightline Cup
3rd Uncleby Lordy LRD Handler: Roy Jarman winning Crosspath Cup
4th Pinefeather Excalibur LRD Handler: Callum Raywood
CoM Snipe Sister LRB Handler: Paul Buckenham
Special Puppy
1st Willowmount Goldikova of Brockaghs LRB Handler: Jim Collins winning Marshland Cup
2nd Winners Avenue LRB Handler: Roy Jarman winning Fobbingacre Trophy
No further awards
Veteran
1st Surprise Is Golden LRB Handler: Andy Ince winning Essex Area Spring Cup
2nd Abbottshall Scotch GRD Handler: Jacqui Crew
No further awards
Judges Choice for the Ron Bendall Trophy won by Mick Elsey with Nathansgreen Duga
We returned to Lucking Farm at Gt Maplestead by kind permission of the Newton family, a lovely ground with plenty of variety of terrain to make use of.
Our judges for the day were Mark Polley, Caroline Heasman, Arthur Cook and Andy Cooper, and our sponsors are Skinner’s Dog Foods with goody bags from Sporting Saint for the winners. We had a good field of entries, across the three classes.
The first test was a mark memory and a blind retrieve, which Mark was judging from up on the hill, a shot was fired in the direction of the blind then a shot in front with a mark, the blind was to be retrieved first, this looked relatively straightforward but many handlers struggled to get their dogs off the mark.
Test two was with Caroline in the woods, a hunting exercise with a single shot, there were four dummies out in an area and two were required to complete this exercise, the majority of dogs completed this exercise.
Our third test was a single water retrieve judged by Arthur. This was a mark with shot onto the water, but the judge wanted the dogs to make a straight entry in the water as opposed to running the bank to gain entry further down the track, we lost a few dogs along the way.
The final test was with Andy who did a short walk-up, stopped then a shot was fired and a dummy thrown in front followed by another shot with a dummy thrown again in front but much deeper. The draw of the second dummy was a bit too much temptation for some, and a lot of the dogs were drawn to the shot so had to be handled onto the dummy.
The day ran very smoothly with winners in SP and Veteran, a winner in Novice and run offs for 2nd and 4th places in Novice which was a long straight mark thrown into some rough ground halfway down a hill with the dogs being sent from halfway up an opposite hill. Once these were done the customary tea & cakes and raffle followed before the awards were presented.
The club would like to thank all our helpers today as along with committee we had a good turnout from our members to help which we are extremely grateful for, as without people putting something back in to the clubs these days would not happen.
Once again a big thankyou to the landowner, judges, sponsors all our helpers and many congratulations to all the award winners.