Dove Valley Working Gundog Club.

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The kind generosity of The Longner Estate and their Sporting Manager, our host, Mr Andrew Bailey, produced ideal ground and conditions for our AV Novice Trial. Mr Keith Carter was our Steward of the Beat, assisted by Oliver Deeley, the Head Keeper and we appreciate all their preparation in making this facility available to us. It is increasingly difficult to find good trialing venues and it is only the kindness of people like Andrew Bailey that allows the Club to provide trials of this standard. A special award for this trial was the Tasco Trophy, presented by the Longner Estate and the Wauchope Family, in memory of the late Mary Rountree, a well known figure in the trialing world. Steve Bolton and Alex Badger were our judges and they were most encouraging to those handlers whose first event this was. The team of guns was lead by Martyn Stevens, and included James Bullock, John Harrison and Mike Berrisford – a previous winner of the Cocker Championships! We were favoured with a dry day - the rain, which was forecast keeping off until well after the end of the trial! The dogs hunted in woodland with a good mix of cover and there were retrieves of pheasant, partridge and rabbit, some of them quite challenging for novice dogs. The handlers must have been pleased to hear Judge Steve Bolton say at the end of the trial that the standard was very good, and there appears to have been some close marking as there was a run off between Mr K.A. Powell’s Beggarbush Rose of Cowarne Court and Mr C. Wadsworth’s Deniro Drone of Sliabh. It was subsequently apparent that the run off was for first place as Chris Wadsworth’s bitch was declared the winner.