The day started off with a northerly wind, giving us a cold snap. Luckily enough we were racing at the indoor facilities at Petersfield for the first of our indoor winter season competitions. We would be racing as the Doggy Mixtures, seeded 5th in Div. 4, with Lady, Eddie K, Toddy, Ben, Spencer and Fudge.
Race 1 vs Ballistic Missile Scuds – Eddie, Toddy, Ben, Lady – An impressive start was made to the days racing with the Doggy Mixtures, and despite Eddie making some false starts!! We took the race in 3 straight legs. Won 3-0.
Race 2 vs Killabytes – Eddie, Toddy, Spencer, Fudge – The first leg of this race was more memorable than the others. This was due to Eddie who found the prospect of Ben’s bum being more of a temptation than the ball in the flyball box, even though Ben wasn’t even racing. The top seeds of the division proved their position by taking 3 straight legs. Lost 3-0.
During the midday break, a starters team competition was run. In this Molly paired up with Todd to make the Bassett half of the ‘Icicles’ scratch team. Molly ran well as last dog in the netting, and Todd, in the end, managed to sort out the “ball drop at last jump” problem. In the end, the Icicles came 3rd out of 5 teams. Well done! (And apparently they played on Antons most up to date box, and Berit had to box load – Not an easy one to load!!)
Race 3 vs Melton B’s – Eddie, Toddy, Spencer, Fudge – MB comfortably took the first leg. However, on the second leg, a very sleepy start by MB gave Eddie and the team an advantage, allowing them to win the leg. However, the tables were turned the following leg when Jan fell asleep at the start, giving MB a comfortable start – box length advantage before Eddie even crossed the start line. MB then proceeded to take the 4th leg. Lost 3-1.
Race 4 vs Katies Cruisers – Eddie, Spencer, Ben, Lady – DM took the first leg with a clean and tidy first run. However directly after this leg, Lady decided to take advantage of a lull in activity to reduce her body weight! Thus resulting in a lost second leg. KC won the third, so onto the fourth leg and the team managed to pull back the score to 2-2, with the Eddie-Spencer change being right on the money, and giving the Doggy Mixtures their fastest time of the day (and ever) of 21.90! For the final leg, KC, suffering from a dog going lame, decided on a late substitution, which resulted in DM being completely overpowered. Lost 2-3.
Race 5 vs Malvern Missile Launchers – Eddie, Fudge, Ben, Lady – Although DM had a nice clean first leg, MML were in the groove and proved to be faster. To everyone’s knowledge this was the MML first ever leg win in BFA flyball, and they subsequently went on to take the next two legs. Lost 3-0.
Overall we came 4th out of 6. With the dogs in the team, we knew it would be tough to keep to the existing seed time (23ish), and in the end, came away with a new seed time of 21.90. However, as the overall times being posted by all teams in Div. 4 were ranging between 20-24, we were not to far out of line.
Somehow Hotdogs (The usual 5!) managed to get themselves into Div. 1. This looked to be bad news for us, as apart from the Buccaneers (and possibly the B. Bullets who we are very close with on seed times) I didn’t think we stood much chance.
Monty raced in the team first, against the B. Bullets, as he is more reliable than Breeze. First run, and he got a light. Bullets then got a start light, so 3rd time lucky, they were racing, but Bullets were racing 5 dogs as their lead dog had got another light. And we still beat them back, if only narrowly! The next 2 races went the same way, so we won. That seemed a good start! Best time, and best ever 19.07. Sub 19 is surely beckoning! We must be able to find an inch or two here or there?
Next on against the Bandits. No chance here! Best time 19.29 and lost that one!
After a break, we were against the Jumping Jacks. Again another consistently fast Div. 1 team. Monty drew the short straw here again! Now, everything happened in such a blur, but I know Robert had a ‘slow’ pass, so I went to tell him, when Anton announced the blue lane (us) had an 18.59!! And to confirm it wasn’t pure fluke, they went on to record an 18.80. As I said, it happened so fast, I don’t know what happened in the third race! But we beat them!
Next, back down to earth, against Back on Track (Jets!). No chance, although we did win two legs, due to lights. But still lost.
Finally, the Buccaneers. This is the one we should win. But somehow, we managed to get a light on every race. So lost! Apparently, Robert jinxed it by saying we could go home if we lost!
We came 4th overall, and a new (Div. 1?) seed time of 18.59. And Monty gained his FDa. Well done!