We had 11 happy campers, and a poorly one, staying over the w/e. Andy produced a fantastic BA flag, which flew brilliantly through out the w/e. It was so good, even the pizza delivery man found us easily on Monday evening!
Saturday got under way with both teams racing in Divs 2 & 4. With Paris and Snip in Allsorts, I assumed we would possibly be in the 23 secs, and if they didn't race, we would be doing 21 secs, so it was difficult to decide a seed time for them (as their current one is 19.99!). Although we had 6 dogs, choosing who was racing when, wasn't easy, as 'X' won't pass with 'Y' etc! Anyway, all things considered, we done extremely well, I thought. First on we had Molly, Badger, Snip, and Lady. All dogs ran brilliantly, and recorded 22.32, beating Whiterose Bobtails 3-2. Next on, we tried Molly, Badger, Snip and Paris. The Mega Bytes seemed to be having a few problems, and we were 2-2, when the line judges noticed the Bytes were running lower than they should have been, so the race was automatically given to us. It was a shame to end some exciting racing that way. After a break, we put Molly, Badger, Breeze and Lady over 14" jumps to give Snip a bit more of a rest. We were against the Flying Colours, who were top seeds, and proved the point, by beating us 3-1. We did, however, produce our fastest time of the day, 21.44. Next on Molly, Badger, Snip and Lady again. We were running well, but Snip was tiring, so we pulled in Paris, which meant the jumps had to go back up, but all worked out well, and we beat Rapidz Response 3-2. Lastly, Molly, Badger, Paris and Lady over 14" again. Paris was struggling a little, and racing was fairly close. So we pulled Paris out, and brought Breeze in. We beat Sheffield Sparklers 3-0. So we came 2nd in our Div, only to be beaten by the top seed team. And we had some close, enjoyable racing.
The Hotdogs had the usual 4 (Spencer, Monty, Abby, Barley) plus Ben on stand by. The first race, against 4 Bad Dogs, we lost 3-1. We weren't to far behind, but couldn't really make up the necessary time. Next up, the K9'ers. This was a straight forward 3-0 win to us. After a break, we beat Melton Foxes 3-1, and finally the Springboks, who were running NFC, so that was a straight forward 3-0, except that Rosie had her first run in a sanctioned tournament, but got distracted by the opposition! There is never much to say about Hotdogs, as their passes are consistent, and the same dogs run. It makes life so much easier! Their best time of the day was 18.88 (back on form!) and they came 2nd.
Sunday morning, Robert judged Div 3, and we were ring party. The afternoon was taken up with some cleverdogs. First on were the minis. There were only 5 entries, of which the average qualifying time was 25 secs. Barley, however, was doing 18's! Claire just needed to get Barley around the twiddly bit safely, and then let her go. No one was going to catch her today. Her best time was 18.35. She duly won her 5th heat. Only one more to go!
The pairs were a little less predictable. Badger & Becky were seed 1. Daisy & Ben, seed 6, and Breeze & Monty seed 7. Badger & Becky went through to the semis, as planned! Breeze & Monty then knocked out seed 3, and went through to the semis, where Badger & Becky then knocked them out! Meanwhile Daisy & Ben had been knocked out by seed 2. So the over all results were: 1st Badger & Becky 36.54 (71 points - 5 qualifiers), 3rd Breeze & Monty 41.41 (72 points - 6 qualifiers), 5th Daisy & Ben 44.00 (24 points - 2 qualifiers).
Hilary and I went to the exemption dog show to finish off the day! Daisy got VHC in prettiest bitch, and Tosh got 4th handsome dog, and 2nd most appealing eyes!
Monday was Multibreed day. We had entered this, as I had 13 dogs that had wanted to compete over the w/e. We had Abby & Molly (Collies), Breeze (Dobe), Daisy (I R&W Setter), Eddie (JRT) and Barley (X). We knew we didn't really stand a chance, as all the other teams have seed times of under 20secs. The racing was run as a Double Elimination, which means once you've lost 2 races you are out. But usually (as in this case) there is a round robin for the losers. So onto the racing. First, just to see what time the 4 fastest could do, we put in Abby, Barley, Breeze and Eddie. They produced our fastest of the day, 20.75, which I though was good, as there were 2 minis in it. But we had been drawn against the Multi Jumping Jacks, and although our first race was a dead heat, we lost 3-1. Next Molly, Daisy, Eddie and Barley, were up against Mad Multi Bytes. We lost 3-0, with a best time of 23.57. So that knocked us out and we were then bottom seed of Div 2. In the round robin, we came up against the Mad Multi Bytes again. They were running much faster than us, so we put in Molly, Daisy, Eddie and Breeze. We lost 3-0, with a best time of 23.74. And finally, a team we were slightly slower than, but maybe had a chance with the 4 fastest again, we were up against Bad Dog Mixture. But we still couldn't do it, and lost 3-0, with a best time of 20.91. So we came 3rd in Div 2.
And finally, the singles cleverdogs. Ben and Abby had got themselves into Div 1, as seeds 6 and 8. They both had some close racing, but unfortunately both were knocked out. Ben came 5th 18.01 (52 points - 5 qualifiers), Abby 6th 18.29 (37 points - 5 qualifiers). Monty was seed 1 in Div 2. Although I missed him, he apparently sailed round on 'autopilot' with times that were better than some Div 1 dogs! He duly won this Div, with a best time of 17.74 (22 points - 4 qualifiers). And finally ABC's. Badger was seed 2, and sailed into the final. And Daisy who squeezed in as seed 8, knocked out seed 4, and went into the quarter finals, where she unfortunately met Badger, but then went on to win her next race against seed 2! Once she had done the difficult twiddly bit, she set sail, and got a best time of 22.25, and came 3rd (22 points - 2 qualifiers). Everyone was delighted! Badger came 2nd with a best time of 18.54 (63 points - 5 qualifiers), but was tiring by the final, whereas Storm had got into her stride.
All in all, a very successful week end. Barley received her Silver Award, along with a photo for Dawn, as a thank you for letting Claire borrow her!