Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:22 pm Post subject: Holkham Country Fair Team Test
Just sat down after a long but excellent day at Holkham Country Fair.
Only one picture but I guess it says it all:
Our 'own' Matt, right there sandwiched in between Sara Gadd and Mike Tallamy, the overall winning team of the two day test event
Top dog went to Tony Parnell but with the slight twist that this dog was top dog BEFORE lunch/cut (which was when the top dog got picked, oddly enough) but at the end of the test Sara Gadd's dog actually had a total of 115 points 'beating' Tony's dog with ONE point!!
Matt has promised a full report later but I can reveal that he had the same total score as Mike Tallamy and his Brindlebay Butler which was an excellent result in it's self
Natasha
____________
WLF All the Way!!!!
"Handle every stressful situation like a dog. If you can´t eat it or hump it. **** on it and walk away..."
Holkham Country Fair - Gundog Working Test Team Event
Organized by Norfolk Gundog Club
Judges : Keith Willimott & Steve Polley
Note : The team placings and individual winner below are correct, however the individual scores and placings are what I took down from the scoreboard, so are only correct to the best of my knowledge.
1st : Suffolk Gundog Club
Brindlebay Butler : Mike Tallamy (108points after six exercises)
FTCh Mansengreen Diesel of Birdsgreen : Sarah Gadd (115)
Chatston Harmony of Spinnakeu : Matt Ager (108)
Total Points : 331
2nd : Eastern Cos Retriever Club
Llexofred Tufty : S Dingle (107)
Airship Larch : D Gosling (109)
Cooper of Hopeful Image : T Parnell (114)
Total : 330
3rd : Midland Gundog Club
Kayteens Actor : K Bedford (103)
Twixwood Shooting Star of Fernshot : P Parkins (104)
Braidenvale Perception : M Fitch (104)
Total : 311
4th : UGS (Eastern Cos)
Highroost Slate : R Ketley
Garrethall Usher : D Laflin
Garrethall Myrhh : L Ingram
Total : 309
Individual (based on first five exercises)
1st Cooper of Hopeful Image : T Parnell (97)
2nd FTCh Mansengreen Diesel of Birdsgreen : S Gadd (96)
3rd Delfleet Gizmo of Westernash (92) : Mary Darton (Norfolk GD)
4th Braidenvales Spieran of Quabrook : H Sully (91) (SEGS)
Myself and Mike Tallamy were effectively on equal fifth with 90 points (along with a couple of others) at the cut and finished equal fourth amongst the competitors from teams taken through past the cut.
Twelve teams competed, with a total of 36 handler / dogs
A really enjoyable weekend! Will post a bit more when I get a chance.
It was done that way so that all the handlers and dogs were in the running for the individual award, even if perhaps their team mates had struggled.
The lowest scoring six teams were cut before the last exercise, and this included some dogs that had scored very well. So, although it looked a slight anomaly at the end, it gave each person the same crack of the whip at winning the individual prize.
The winning dog went superbly over the five exercises for the indivdual award, and was just unlucky to have a small blip on his final retrieve. I do have to say though that I’m now a fully paid member of the Mansengreen Diesel fan club, he was brilliant for us!
This was a really well thought out and organised team test run by the Norfolk Gundog Club. The exercises were stretching enough to test the Open standard dogs, and achievable enough to keep the test flowing and avoid large strings of failures. Looking through the score sheet virtually all of the competitors had at least one struggle on something or other over the two days, but there were only seven zeros awarded - generally when an incorrect dummy had been picked.
The list of a competitors was a bit of a who’s who of the eastern counties trialling scene along with some strong entries from the Midlands, Lincolnshire and the South East, and I’m sure all the dogs had previously done well in trials and Open tests including some FTChs.
The organizers did very well with the reasonably limited terrain of the test area. Basically a long grass strip with the river running along the length of the course, and a wooded nettley area on the far bank. They also made use of wooden fence sections and piles of conifer brash.
Each test was done as a team, with one nominated dummy being picked by each of the three dogs in turn, usually in numerical order, but sometimes through team decision.
Exercise one. Two blinds were placed behind some wooden fencing at one end, and a mark with a loud shot was fired into the river. My team mates were sent in turn for the two blinds (ignoring the distraction of the mark) over the fences which they achieved pretty quickly, and I had to pick the mark from the river. No problems with that – 20 for us (17 for Mike and 20 for Sarah)
Exercise two. Two marks down the other end of the area with the dummies dropping into conifer brash, and the third a blind in a fenced area slightly to the left. Once again I was sent after the first two had been picked, this time for the blind over the fence. Lola didn’t pop over the fence quite as quickly as she should and we scored 17. (16 for Mike and 17 for Sarah)
Exercise three. Three blinds fairly close together with shot over the other side of the river in the grass / nettles. We could send in any order and were sent quite some way back from the bank. The bank edge dropped down a fair bit, so the only way you knew the dog was going over was a thumbs up from the judge. Quite a number of dogs didn’t go over without some effort from the handlers. Just to add to the ‘entertainment’ the water was full of kamikaze ducks and ducklings that seemed to have very little fear of swimming dogs! You could only see the dog once it was half way across the water.
Fortunately all our dogs made a nice job of this. Lola went second, drifted a bit downstream due to the wind, but once on the far bank handled nicely into the wind and hunted well to quickly pick and score 19 - very pleased with my ‘get over’ water practise! (19 for Mike and 20 for Sarah)
That completed the first day, and we were in second place, I think about three points behind the Eastern Co’s team.
Exercise Four. (my squeaky bum time!!) We were walked up together, and three dummies were thrown with shots at the other end, two behind the fence, one in front. Also a bolting ‘rabbit’ shot across a third of the way up the course and then left behind some bails to the left of the course. This was a serious distraction and some dogs picked up a zero by heading for the bales and picking the rabbit skin dummy. We went in number order but nominated our retrieves. Mike had to clear the one in front of the fence out of the way, leaving the other two over the fence. Sarah made a nice job of the second.
I went for the third which was on the left hand side behind the fence in an area next to the river. Rather than sending Lola on a direct line past the rabbit I angled her ‘left to right’ away from the rabbit, which she did exactly as I wanted. Then when she got to the end I stopped her, pushed her left and then back, over the fence. Once again a little hesitant at the fence (not sure why the fences I’ve been training her over are much more intimidating), but no real problems. At that point I thought that we had negotiated all the ‘bunkers’ successfully.
She hunted the fenced area and just drifted out of sight for a few seconds, and then I heard the terrifying words from the commentator; “and the dogs seems to be crossing the water!”
Great! Just at the point in the water where most of the ducks were congregated! Great! (Curse that b****y ‘get over’ water practise!!)
A bit of a heart in the mouth moment as I saw Lola in the distance determinedly swimming across the water amongst dozens of ducks and duckling! Fortunately a blast on the whistle stopped her in her tracks in the water, and a right hand signal turned her back, and I was mightily relieved to see her pop back into the right area where she hunted and picked the dummy no more than a few yards from where she had popped over the fence! Seldom have I appreciated a “well done” as much as that one. I think we all knew that looked like it was all going horribly, horribly wrong! Score 14 (18 for Mike and 19 for Sarah)
Our scores for that exercise dropped us another point on Eastern Cos, and Midland Gundog had caught up to a point behind us in third.
Exercise Five. Three blinds at different angles, one short, one medium and one long, with handlers being sent in reverse number order. Lola therefore had the shortest, only about forty yards away but tucked in cover very near the edge of the water, with a non-favourable wind direction, meaning that the dog had to be right on it to wind the dummy. I gave Lola a half-hearted “back” as I didn’t want her to try and going charging over the river. She went exactly as I wanted and picked virtually immediately. All three of us scored 20 on this.
That exercise took us level with Eastern Cos who had dropped four points between them, and opened up a bit of a gap in front of the third placed team.
This took us to lunch, after which they had a cut to the top six teams. Unfortunately the bottom three teams don’t get invited next time- Another three teams are invited.
The afternoon session involved each team being taken over to the far bank of the water and sent for three nominated blinds in piles of brash a long way back from the water, just in front of the spectators. Both Mike and Sarah’s dogs made a decent job, leaving Lola to pick our final retrieve. She made a pretty decent job as well, and we finished the exercises thinking we had hopefully cemented at least second, and set a decent standard for Eastern Cos to match. However we knew that there was enough scope for Eastern Cos to put in slightly cleaner retrieves and get the win.
As things turned out we scored 18 for Mike, 19 Sarah, and 18 Me, and Eastern Cos scored 17, 20 and 17, so we just pipped them by a point!
This was my first big team event, and I really enjoyed myself. I was delighted with how Lola went in a pretty alien environment with a commentator, spectators and show noises etc. Our nightmare fourth retrieve actually had given me confidence, as I thought if we can dig ourselves out of that one, then we’ll dig ourselves out of most things!
I really enjoyed being teamed up with Mike and Sarah. For those that don’t know, they are very well known in the trialling world and hugely experienced. They were really supportive, and I found it an education. They regularly told me that it didn’t matter how we went, but I can tell just how competitive they are! We had an approach to every exercise mapped out before setting foot in the ring each time. I was very pleased to hold my end of the team up.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
point!!
Look forward to hearing more soon.
