Dove Valley Working Gundog Club.
By kind invitation of Mr and Mrs James Player.  Judges. Jane Fairclough, Godfrey Lowe and Sue Lowe.  Chief Steward - John Mee. |
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Our
first Retriever Working Test of 2009 attracted 36 handlers with one
absentee. All dogs were Labradors.
This was our third visit to the home of Mr and Mrs Player and it is a wonderful place to be on a sunny Spring day. The ground is ideal with plenty of interesting spots to test the dogs. Test 1, judged by Godfrey, was a blind with a distraction and 2 shots. Most dogs completed this test but very few were un-handled. Test 2 was a single blind with shot about 50 yards down a ride, over a ditch under a holly bush. Sue Lowe was judging this test and again, most dogs coped quite well. Jane Fairclough was at the lake for test 3 which was a straight forward mark over the water. The instruction from Jane for dogs to return via the lake caused problems for some, otherwise most were successful. The afternoon tests comprised of a blind over the lake judged by Godfrey, a picking up excercise for 2 birds, judged by Jane and a 2 dog walk-up with a mark in front and blind behind, judged by Sue. All the tests had been sensibly set with shoot day situations in mind and the judges agreed that a winner should cope well with the transition to Open Tests. And the Winners were............ First winning the BASC Trophy - Marlene Dobson handling Delta's Night. (116 points ex 120)  Marlene is presented with the BASC Trophy by Pippa Player. Second winning the Tutbury Gun Rooms Shield - Tim Brain with Cotared Piccolo. Third Mrs K Stringfellow, handling Chandkelann Fritha Rose. Fourth Melvyn Hyatt with Flashmount Amber. Certificates of Merit were awarded to: Mr M J Hirst's Skeffington Goldfinch. Jean Blacknell's Kilpen Jade. Mrs A Minshall's Burlington Bert of Belvedere. Kev Marriott's Gossmount Travis.  Mike Thompstone's Rollpark Farm Skylark delivers on Test 1.  Skylark's Litter Brother, Black Pepper, owned and handled by Cherryl Jones, ran well.  Martin Eveleigh's photogenic Brindlebay Giddy of Saddlemoss.  Sue Lowe concentrates at Test 2.  My own Golden Sox of Pixalot at the morning water test. Photo John Mead.  Chris Winfield's Avonford Jackson catches a few rays.  John Mee looks after his Stewards and Judges.  Suzanne Bailye's Flaxfire Farina comes back the right way at Test 3. Photo Kev Marriott.  SachaTreadwell's Springador, Peanuts, was running "Just for Fun". (Sorry Sacha!)  Hostess and keen Picker-up, Pippa Player, watches Test 3.  CoM Winner, Kev Marriott with Gossmount Travis, tries a bit of Puddin!  The "Blake Hilton".  Dove Valley regular, Chris Winfield waits at Test 2.  Dave Brown sends Grangemead Luck at Test 5.  Terry Dobson with My Bashful Lady. "Why did she do that"? Photo - and caption - Kev Marriott.  The Walk-up, Test 6 with, below, Chris Winfield's Avonford Jackson.................  .....................on his way back with the Mark.  It's rude to point!  Waiting for the results.  This camera lark is contagious!  Runner-up, Tim Brain receives The Tutbury Gun Rooms Shield from Pippa.  L to R. Mrs A Minshall, Jean Blacknell, Melvyn Hyatt, Marlene Dobson, Godfrey Lowe, Sue Lowe, Tim Brain, Mrs K Stringfellow and Jane Fairclough. (You should have stayed a little longer Mr Hirst)  And finally, our Winner. Well done Marlene. Click HERE for slideshow of photos. Thank you to Mr and Mrs Player for allowing us to use their wonderful Estate for this Test. It was a glorious day with lots of friendly rivalry and banter. Thanks also to "The Dove Valley Team". We couldn't do it without you. |
