URC Hants and Southwest Held their novice walked up on field trial lines on the Lopshill Farm by kind invitation of Ollie and Sarah Kate Coward. We were very lucky to have great judges Mr John Stubbs, Mr Colin Pelham, Mr Kelvin Nettlingham and Mrs Patti Money-Coutts. The steward of the beet was Janie Mann and dog steward was Ken Green so we were in good hands.
We gathered together with 21 dogs and handlers in warm, slightly damp and breezy conditions at the start of the day. Perfect for the dogs. The first round took part in a large grass field that had recently been cut for hay. The undulating ground was flanked by hedges, woodland and rough cover. Straight away we had marks on either side along with a few rabbits shot in the cover on the edges of the field. Most dogs coped well with the challenges, picking cleanly their two first round retrieves. We then continued on the first round into another field will heavily covered mound in the centre of the field. We lost a few dogs here as along with the centre cover there were also marks and unseen retrieves in the field along the hedgerows and even over a jump into a neighbouring field. After a short judges huddle all dogs were then taken back up to another field that had a larger wood to the right and a large pond out of sight to the dogs that was surrounded by longer grass. Here the dogs were now crossing to pick from the other side. Again marks and blinds were placed and thrown often being shot in very quick succession. Marks had to be ignored, the blinds first and visa versa, the dogs having to trust where they were pointed in order to succeed. Shots echoed from within the woods, some visible others were given an area of the fall. Marks were thrown near to the pond and the temptation to jump into the water was resisted by all. We passed through a line of trees into another stretch of pastureland with much taller grass that during the extremely wet spring had deep ruts created in them and now had been baked solid. Tricky for both human and dog to negotiate. We lost a few more dogs here. The breeze was still good but the clouds had parted and the sun was now out. The judges had another good chat and it was decided that all 8 remaining dogs would go forward to line out for the duck drive. It was a heavy drive with many shots and dummies. It provided too much of a temptation for one dogs so now the dogs had to swim the 30 plus yards to pick from the opposite bank. A few dogs were lost and so the dogs were then sent from a different position to pick. The dogs had to swim alongside a very tempting strip of land that lead to the opposite bank. One last huddle of judges and it was determined that the prize winners had been found.
Results:
1st Jill Thorpe with her labrador dog Stauntonvale Dickens winning the Hoffbank Mr Chips Decanter
2nd Peter Aston with his labrador bitch Laurino Calypso Spark
3rd Emma Mills with her labrador dog Oaklyfield Nugget
COM was awarded to Robert Atkinson with his golden retriever Holway Spindle
Massive congratulations to them all.