3rd November 2022 - All Aged Retriever Field Trial

Foremark was the venue today for our All-Aged A/V Retriever Trial by kind permission of Philip Bishop.

 

As most of you know by now, funds from our raffles, member donations and website adverts are donated to Charity and for the past 12 months, our chosen Charity was MIND so today we presented a cheque for £2351.85 to Steph Sillah from Burton and District MIND. Thank you to everyone who has helped us support this very worthwhile cause. For the statisticians amongst you, our total is made up as follows: Retriever Trials and Tests - £850.05 Spaniel Trials and Tests - £500.80 Adverts - £305.00 Member donations £410.00 End of season Training Class Tests (which included an auction for a copy of "The Best of The Best") - £286.00

 

Now - back to today's Trial! Unfortunately, Philip was unable to be with us today so he delegated the running of the line to Derek Capel who did a fabulous job for us. Following a quick introduction of our Guns, Pete Bancroft, Steve Mear, Dave Cooke, Chris Burrows, Henry Carney and Jacob Henry and Judges, Dave Brown, Brian Chesser, Steve Probert and Vicki Rushton, we made our way to some cover crop and lined out to walk-up. Game came steadily right from the off and Dave and Vicki on the left and Brian and Steve on the right quickly had the Trial underway. It has to be said that our Guns shot really well with only the odd runner. Walking-up was the order of the day for most of the Trial although we did have one little drive. With 4 dogs left on 5 retrieves apiece after the third round, our Judges decided they had seen enough.

Awards as follows -

 

First, winning the Gossmount Trophy presented by Kev and Jan Marriott (Kevin Marriot) and lots of goodies from our Sponsors was Neil Appleton with Abbeyfold Dandelion King of Applebriar.

Second winning The Spirit of Blythe Trophy presented by The Late John Cartwright was Stephen Newitt handling Castletioriam Caledonia at Quinngrave.

 

Third was Karen Vere-Hodge with Applebriar Clyde. Karen was also presented with The Roston Cup for The Best Lady Handler donated to us by Gregg and Carol Shaw.

 

Fourth was Jackie Martin with Goldieslie Quenn's Coppice. Jackie was also Gun's Choice winning The Thorpe Cloud Clary Trophy presented by Graham and Diane Barratt.

 

This was a fabulous Trial on a tough ground and as always, I have to thank "The Team" who never fail to come up with the support we need to help our Trials run smoothly.

Thanks also to our Sponsors - Skinners, Sporting Saint, animology, Gundog Journal, Twicebrewed Twines and ACME Whistles.