25/26th September - Open Retriever 2 Day Qualifying Stake - Bagots Park

Dove Valley held its 169th Field Trial Meeting at Bagots Park on 25-26 th September  by kind permission of Mr David Dale &  Steward of the Beat Samuel Sayce.

 

Judges for our trial were

Laura Hill, Barry Taylor , Wendy Glue & Sharon Kitson

 

We are very lucky to have a regular team of guns , they were James Barnes , Henry Carney , Steve Sayce , Brian Wilshaw , Max  Higginbottom & Jon Fern.  The Guns very kindly  contributed to the trial and the club & handlers showed their appreciation for their commitment that allows us to carry on with the sport we all love.

Picking up for the trial was Ian Glover

 

We started the day in the shoot room for a sit down breakfast for the Guns & Judges with breakfast batches for handlers & helpers , all cooked for us by Helen Seaman & a team of helpers .

 

The trial started with a drive and judges put the dogs out Odds & Evens with Laura & Sharon on the right & Barry & Wendy on the left.

All dogs were in line and Sam and his team of beaters slowly trickled the birds over the guns. The drive was stopped to enable the dogs to pick in very thick Legume Fallow cover.

Guns shot really well with two birds being shot with one barrel from James Barnes .

The cover proved quite hard for the dogs and we lost quite a few in the first round.

 

Sam took us to a different piece of ground where we lined out to walk it up.

The dogs were tested with retrieves across  the line but judges gave all the dogs a fair & sensible chance to pick the retrieves in such tough conditions.

As we came to the end of round two the judges decided to finish day one with 8 dogs required for day two.

 

Day two :

After more lovely breakfast batches cooked by Bridget , Janey & Roz to set everyone up for the day we lined out in the Fallow cover  making sure we had a long straight line.

Once again dogs were tested on long retrieves but helped by the judges , so handlers knew when they were in the area.

Unfortunately some dogs were not required anymore and we were left with 5 dogs.

In a fresh field the guns were informed 5 more birds , so the line moved on slowly and it wasn’t long before Henry Carney shot a left & a right for the dogs.

We were down to 2 dogs when the judges had their final huddle and called TRIAL OVER .

 

FIRST PLACE

Winning the Klato Cup donated by David Clayton Also the Flaxfire Trophy donated by ColinWalker

1) Carol Probert with Etomanni Ludo of Corsemalzie This makes Carols dog up to FTCH subject to the KC

 

SECOND PLACE

Winning the Derrity Trophy donated by Charlotte Jeffery Along with a B qualification

7) Rebecca Thistle with Cardueae Yealands

 

C O M & GUNS CHOICE

14) Janna sours with Northglen Lester Hunt

 

I felt very emotional awarding Carol with first place as her dog was Dave’s dog and a lot of people at the trial started their gundog journey with Dave including me. I Don’t think there was a dry eye in the room.

So chuffed for you Carol, so well deserved.

Lastly a HUGE THANK YOU TO THE ARMY OF HELPERS !!!

We could not do this without you

Paula, Kate , John , Paul, Sarah, Steve, Jackie, Cherryl , Roz, Bridget, Bob, Helen , Ian , Julia  & Janey for all the support & 100’s of messages to keep me on my toes.