First of Many
After days of nothing but rain it was a relief to see the day of the trial look like being a dry day.
As as we approached the ground the sun started to shine on our 1st trial of the season.
We were being hosted at the Holloway Shoot in Clive Shropshire by Mr Ken Benbow and the guns.
The judges for the day were Mr David Pope who was our A Panel judge and Mr Steve Kelsall our non panel, they were to be assisted by committee member Stan Pearson as steward.
Ken Benbow was to be steward of the beat and he explained that the Secretary Mr Chris Wadsworth and the judges the trial was to be a new piece of ground a short drive away so we would be travelling on convoy to the area for the trial.
So off we all set on the short and very picturesque drive through some of Shropshire’s finest countryside.
When we arrived and the dogs and handlers had a quick 5 minutes , then we set off to a wood at the bottom of a hill.
The trial was an AV novice but was predominantly springers with a lonesome cocker in the mix as well. And only one lady Handler
The idea was to work the wood round in a clockwise manner with Steve on the outside left with the even numbers and I accompanied David with the odd numbers towards the middle of the wood.
After days of rain it very quickly became apparent that the pheasants may well be taking advantage of some sun of their backs as the even numbers were very quickly straight into to flushing the birds from the sunny edges of the wood.
With the even numbers rattling through their runs we were soon lagging behind in the darker interior of the wood, It has to be said that each dog that ran under David had a good thorough hunt and the judges were left in no doubt about there hunting skills or style However we did on numerous occasions see sunshine as we had been called over on 3 occasions for retrieves of what was by now a very sunny field indeed. It was good to see that the even numbers dogs were adept at blinding retrieving and that they were having some level of success when we were called over.
However as the day progressed and the sun came above the wood it we soon started to find game in the sunnier spots and I saw some lovely contacts flushes and nice marked retrieves.
As we approached the end of the wood we still had 4 dogs left to run under Dave so Ken decided that we should head for a small spinney further along, we were slightly hampered as there was a field full of cattle who were typical nosey cows and kept wanting to come and watch the proceedings.
The level of dogs and handling in many cases in my opinion would have not of been out of there depth in an Open stake there was some lovely hunting, handling marking and retrieving to be seen on the day and you could tell that everybody had spent hours preparing for the trial.
On the whole most dogs had 2 good runs and the ones put out were for a multitude of reasons from ranging to far to missing retrieves and most things in between.
However on the day it came down to the wire between just 2 dogs, I wouldn’t of like to have had to split that decision.....but it was thought on the day that Rosebay Harvey owned and Handled by Dave Moore had the slightly better 2 runs to give him his Novice win to be able to compete at Open Level.
The results for the day were
1st Rosebay Harvey Dave Moore
2nd Sparnhill Amethyst R Lewis
3rd Edwardiana Basantee of Gwrychbedw R B Jones
4th Guns Choice Parklane Pippa Taff Ms S Martin.
Everybody had a good day and a as a 1st trial of the season everything ran smoothly with lots of good feedback for the judges the ground and the general organisation of the day.
The Gwynedd Spaniel Club would like to once again thank Mr Benbow and the guns namely, Graham Burton, Dave Wood, John Worslay and Dave Wolchester, Stan Pearson for stewarding that made it such as successful trial.
And also Mr David Pope and Steve Kelsall for being extremely conscientious and helpful judges who managed to help and advise wherever they could.
After days of nothing but rain it was a relief to see the day of the trial look like being a dry day.
As as we approached the ground the sun started to shine on our 1st trial of the season.
We were being hosted at the Holloway Shoot in Clive Shropshire by Mr Ken Benbow and the guns.
The judges for the day were Mr David Pope who was our A Panel judge and Mr Steve Kelsall our non panel, they were to be assisted by committee member Stan Pearson as steward.
Ken Benbow was to be steward of the beat and he explained that the Secretary Mr Chris Wadsworth and the judges the trial was to be a new piece of ground a short drive away so we would be travelling on convoy to the area for the trial.
So off we all set on the short and very picturesque drive through some of Shropshire’s finest countryside.
When we arrived and the dogs and handlers had a quick 5 minutes , then we set off to a wood at the bottom of a hill.
The trial was an AV novice but was predominantly springers with a lonesome cocker in the mix as well. And only one lady Handler
The idea was to work the wood round in a clockwise manner with Steve on the outside left with the even numbers and I accompanied David with the odd numbers towards the middle of the wood.
After days of rain it very quickly became apparent that the pheasants may well be taking advantage of some sun of their backs as the even numbers were very quickly straight into to flushing the birds from the sunny edges of the wood.
With the even numbers rattling through their runs we were soon lagging behind in the darker interior of the wood, It has to be said that each dog that ran under David had a good thorough hunt and the judges were left in no doubt about there hunting skills or style However we did on numerous occasions see sunshine as we had been called over on 3 occasions for retrieves of what was by now a very sunny field indeed. It was good to see that the even numbers dogs were adept at blinding retrieving and that they were having some level of success when we were called over.
However as the day progressed and the sun came above the wood it we soon started to find game in the sunnier spots and I saw some lovely contacts flushes and nice marked retrieves.
As we approached the end of the wood we still had 4 dogs left to run under Dave so Ken decided that we should head for a small spinney further along, we were slightly hampered as there was a field full of cattle who were typical nosey cows and kept wanting to come and watch the proceedings.
The level of dogs and handling in many cases in my opinion would have not of been out of there depth in an Open stake there was some lovely hunting, handling marking and retrieving to be seen on the day and you could tell that everybody had spent hours preparing for the trial.
On the whole most dogs had 2 good runs and the ones put out were for a multitude of reasons from ranging to far to missing retrieves and most things in between.
However on the day it came down to the wire between just 2 dogs, I wouldn’t of like to have had to split that decision.....but it was thought on the day that Rosebay Harvey owned and Handled by Dave Moore had the slightly better 2 runs to give him his Novice win to be able to compete at Open Level.
The results for the day were
1st Rosebay Harvey Dave Moore
2nd Sparnhill Amethyst R Lewis
3rd Edwardiana Basantee of Gwrychbedw R B Jones
4th Guns Choice Parklane Pippa Taff Ms S Martin.
Everybody had a good day and a as a 1st trial of the season everything ran smoothly with lots of good feedback for the judges the ground and the general organisation of the day.
The Gwynedd Spaniel Club would like to once again thank Mr Benbow and the guns namely, Graham Burton, Dave Wood, John Worslay and Dave Wolchester, Stan Pearson for stewarding that made it such as successful trial.
And also Mr David Pope and Steve Kelsall for being extremely conscientious and helpful judges who managed to help and advise wherever they could.