Trials Manager's Report

Thanks to everyone who helped at the trial this year.  The weather was mixed.  Thursday and Sunday were fine and we had our TD qualifiers on these days.  Friday was wet and windy and Saturday was horrendous!

At 6.30 am on Saturday morning I was seriously considering the implications of cancelling the trial as the wind was so bad.  My first consideration was the dogs on the scale in the C&A and the tracklayers out in the fields early on.

After telephone conversations with Tom Darcy (TD tracklayer), Margaret Robinson (C&A judge), Heather Donnelly (TD judge) and Maive Weselby (WD judge) we decided to defer everything until 11 am that morning. 

Fortunately the wind abated sufficiently by then for us to carry on with the trial, but it was a close run thing! (sorry about the early call Margaret!). 

Everything ran well due to the hard work of everyone involved, especially Jan Darby at the base.  Thanks again everyone.

BARRIE JAMES,

 

Stake : CD

Judge : STEVI BOYALL

Steward : Sheila Tannert

The overall standard of the competitors was brilliant.  With some pairs to look out for.

It was only the jumps that proved a problem.

1st           Mrs. B.I. Draper with DECOYMANS PIPER ICEMAN. Q. An excellent round with a great team.  A well deserved win.

2nd         Mrs. R.L. Banfather with STARCO MY GUY OF BANNERSWAY. NQ.  A good team to look out for.  A great round.

3rd          J. Martineou with JAYEMJI THE KITEFLIER. NQ.  A brilliant control round.  Shame about the jumps.

After a run off for 4th place between TIMBA OF HARDY VICTORY and PIXHAM PRETTY LADY.

4th          Mr. / Mrs. B. Wood with PIXHAM PRETTY LADY handled by Carol Wood.  A great little dog that loves its work.

 

TD & WD Control & Agility

Judge: MARGARET ROBINSON 

Base Steward: Jan Darby

Thanks to the society for asking me to judge, and also a big thank you to Trails Manager Barry James.  I think that this is Barry's 3rd or 4th year running this trial and his developing experience is beginning to show. Despite the horrific weather conditions, to the best of my knowledge, everything went just great, so thanks Barry for all the time, effort and organization.  A very special thank you to Anne Fowler who sweet-talks the farmers into letting The MBCC have the land for the trial. Without Anne's help there would be no trial.  Well once again mad Ramsey and AWT have nothing on the Chefs in the kitchen at MBCC. The food was just great.  Thanks to you all.  Last but not least special thanks to Jan Darby who kept the base running and the score sheets updated in her usual quiet and efficient manner.  Thanks Jan.

Well the weather forecast was horrendous and wind got progressively worse on each day of the trial, only easing up a little on the Sunday. Obviously this was to have a great deal more effect on the nosework than the C & A but nevertheless it had to be taken into consideration for some exercises and the sendaway and redirect in particular.

I try to set a test that will allow the dog and handler to demonstrate all the exercises to the best of their ability. I do not consider that I am there to test the dog's ability to work under distraction or intimidation, therefore I try to avoid this type of situation.

The jumps and stays let one or two dogs down but basically the tests were completed competently by most of the dogs, with some doing very very well and a few needing a little more polish.

W.D.Stake

1st           Julie Atkins with OUR DUG.  BC  First attempt at WD and worked brilliantly . Only 20 months old and his happy and confident performance was a joy to watch. Well on his way so watch out folks, she's about to do it again.  Excellent Julie   Well done.   27.5/30 & 19/20   Total 191  COM

2nd         Christine Stewart with  BELDORM DUNCAN  Std. Poodle  Another first attempt at WD and again only 22 months old. Chris certainly knows how to get the best out of her poodles. A really good all round performance.  27.5/30  19/20    Total 190.5 COM  & Best Track  Absolutely Brilliant.

3rd          Ruth Cahill with BAYRIVER AMBUSH OF SALENZE CDX    GSD  A lovely round and a pleasure to judge.  Ruth's kind and experienced handling has changed this dog from a budding OB.CH. to a budding WT CH  Good luck  26.5/30  20/20  Total 190.5   COM

4th          Dave Marchant with WAGGERLAND MURPHY  WSD  Another young dog showing great promise.  Forgot to return over the scale today . Well in that wind it was easy to forget just about anything otherwise a happy and competent round.  26/30  14/20  Total 183  COM

Roger Shrimpton with SLIEVE CARRIE ANNE CDEX  BC  Total 178.5/200  COM   Well Done

Fran Atkin with Bronfynnon Brecon CDEX  Total 169/200   COM

Please note: I have no record for the gun marks so I have given the control as marks out of 30 instead of 35.

Thank you all for entering under me. For those that qualified the C & A on Friday & Saturday the nosework conditions were dreadful so I hope you all have much better luck and weather conditions at future trials.  Good Luck.

TD Stake

1st           Liz Warrior with OH MY K-KATIE CDex UDex WDex        XB  I know that for health reasons it has been difficult for you to give her much work, however if her performance today is the result of lack of work, I would cut down some more. A polished and competent round. Very well done.

24/30     20/20  Total 193 COM  and best Track.

2nd         Francis Ball with ALICE ON SPRINGS CDex UDex WDex      Lab.  What a little treasure. Just gets on with it and tries so hard to please.

A little more confidence and experience and she will soon be challenging all the other labs in ticket.  Good Luck.  25.5/30  20/20  Total 190.5  COM

3rd          Nigel Hinds with TYTRI KES OF BRYNSWOOD  Lovely heelwork. Just a little more confidence required in the s/a & speak.

From an "unbiased" point of view I thinks he's just great and with your experience I'm sure his s/a and speak will soon improve.  Good luck.

25/30  20/20  Total 186  COM    Not bad for a 1st attempt at TD

4th          Les Theobold with TYTRI TESS CDex UDex   BC  Litter sister to the above.  Another competent round, enthusiastic and confident.

Excellent s/a and redirect.  Although very sensitive, this litter are all willing, & enthusiastic workers and brilliant nosework dogs. What more could one want?

Perhaps another one or two or three. 25/30 18/20  Total 183 COM

S Cooper MIDNIGHT SPARKLE Cdex.  UDex.  WDex.   Wiem.  Excellent control round. To your credit one of the best control rounds at this trial. No mean achievement with a Wiem.  Very impressive. Well done  Good luck in ticket. 28/30  20/20  Total 182 COM

As above the gun marks are not included in the details above as I had no record of them.

Thank you for entering under me. I enjoyed judging all of you and just wish that the weather had been more conducive to the nosework especially on Saturday & Sunday.  I'm sure with better conditions we would have had many more qualifiers.  All the best to all of you.

 

WD Nosework

Judge: MAEVE WESELBY

Tracklayers : Linda Newbold, Barry James, Andy Magyar, Graham Brumpton and Stan Taylor

Search Steward : John Weselby

I would like to thank Midland Border Collie Club for inviting me to judge the WD nosework.  I had an enjoyable three days judging thanks to a lovely bunch of competitors.  My thanks to Barry, Trials Manager and his team for the first class  organisation throughout.  Tracking was on muddy grazing.  The first and second days were extremely cold and blustery but the third day the wind dropped which made tracking slightly easier.  Many thanks to my tracklayers and also my "square" mate.

24 entries - 18 competed

Control judge: Margaret Robinson

1st Julie Atkins with OUR DOUG (BC) 191Q.  An excellent performance by this young dog - congratulations.

2nd         Christine Stewart with BELDORM DUNCAN (Std Poodle) 190.5 Q.  Looks like you have picked another good tracking dog.  Also won the Tracking trophy.

3rd          Ruth Cahill and BAYRIVER AMBUSH OF SALENZE (GSD) 190.5 Q. Mum said she didn't think he was ready - but he proved her wrong in difficult conditions.  Well done.

4th          Dave Marchant with WAGGERLAND MURPHY (BC). 183 Q.  A very competent team, showing great promise for the future.

Also qualifying :

Frances Webb with BLACKKNIGHT OF LINCOLN (GSD) 182.5

Cath Chadwick with KERCHAK DACING RHAPSOCY (GSD) 180.5

Roger Shrimpton with SLIEVE CARRIE ANN (BC) 178.5

Fran Atkins with BRONFYNNON BECON (WSD) 169

 

TD NOSEWORK

Judge: HEATHER DONNELLY

Track Layers Tom Darby Jane Webb Patrick Donnelly

Search Steward Margaret Jones

Thanks again to all those concerned with helping me over the past 4 days. Barry James had a particularly difficult task, concerning safety decisions with the horrendous weather conditions thrown at us particularly on the Friday and Saturday. I must again thank my 'field people' mentioned above, for their courage and hardiness. If I had known what the conditions would have been like I would have asked my worst enemies rather than people I like and respect!

Thanks to Anne Fowler for securing the land, which looked liked sparse winter wheat but was in fact grass sown in drills. Besides the gale force winds the mud stuck to our feet with great tenacity! I kept the track pattern very straight forward, with one difficult article, as a tester which only one handler saw!. Because the pattern was straight forward I made the search square difficult but only one dog failed the square. Most dogs got 2 and 3 and the very last dog (Alan Wright's dog) all 4. Particularly impressive searching was Richard Cornwall's', Mrs Davies Xbreed and Alan Wright's dogs.

1st           Best Track Mrs Warrior OH MY K-KATIE (XB) Very difficult to steal any marks of this impressive tracking dog. Very methodical and hardly took a foot of the track, worked well as a team. Well deserved.

2nd         Francis Ball ALICE ON SPRINGS (Lab) The first dog on the first day. More sensitive than her kennel mate but a good honest tracking dog.

3rd          Nigel Hines TYTRI KES OF BRYNSWOOD. Very impressive handling especially when hit a difficulty on the second leg. Dog and handler didn't look like ever giving up and thoroughly deserved their qualification.

4th          Les THEOBALD TYTRI TESS. Loved her grit determination in finding the corners which she took some time to negotiate and unfortunately lost marks, once on the leg couldn't steal any marks of her.

5th          S Cooper MIDNIGHT SPARKLE. (Wiem) worked well as a team again very methodical track. Loved the handlers motivational attitude with her dog.

The team most deserved to qualify but didn't was D. Craven and STILLMOOR STORM ON STRIDING. Completed all except the last leg and with only one article. Dog worked very hard. Pity.