Saturday - (report by Robert Henshall)
A strong contingent for this tournament, which comprised of Five Dogs (Molly, Spencer, Monty, Abby & Rosie) and Three Handlers (Dave, Kay and myself). So initial problem of recruiting at least one Handler and the same for a box loader. Debbie Collins of the Ball Busters (Purple People) volunteered to run Spencer, which she did throughout the competition, improving with each run. Louise Perkins of Bristol Ball-istics did the box loading for us, yet again, except when we were running against her team when another Purple Person did the honours. Assistance also came from Kate Theobald and Julia Kearney both of the Jumping Jacks in helping Dave run Molly.
First race was against Bristol Ball-istics, a team I thought we would beat, but unfortunately Molly had other ideas by refusing to leave Dave's side. Then Monty got a light and did a re-run. However we did manage to get a time, a commendable 19.61run over full height jumps but lost 3 - 1.
The second race was against Bad Dog Racers and we still hadn't resolved our problems. Initially Kay released Molly while still holding Monty but Kate then came to the rescue to release Molly to enable Dave to run ahead of Molly to the start line. Debbie was now getting used to Spencer and although we lost 3 - 0 we managed our fastest time of the day of 19.49. That ended the first session.
Next was Starter Pairs where Kay and Rosie teamed up with Lisa and Minty of MDS. This was run as two divisions. First race they won 3 - 0 with a best time of 12.95 with both dogs eyeing up the opposition on the return runs. Second race, both dogs realised what they should be concentrating on and achieved another win 3 - 0 with a best time of 10.94. After a rest while the other division ran they returned to be beaten by the overall winners 3 - 0 who were running sub 9. The last race they won 3 - 0 this gave them 2nd place. Their best time was 10.19 but I failed to record during which race.
Back to Division One and the last two races.
The first race was against The Buccaneers. What a change and what a shock for the opposition. We took the first then they got one back we took the next for 2 - 1. then Abby got a 'light/flag' for 2 - 2. All down to the last and Molly did a superb start and we were ahead then Abby fumbled the ball at the box although she returned over the hurdles having retrieved the ball, it was all over. The final result a 3 - 2 loss.
The last race was against the K9'ers to decide who ended up with 'a duck'. Again some close racing but we achieved a win 3 - 1. The second session made up for first when we were still trying to get things together. An enjoyable day's flyball had by all, especially Debbie, although I think Dave would prefer to run one dog.
Sunday (report by Ann Alderman)
Having had to rearrange our teams, to fit over the 2 days, I was unsure of how we would do. Although BH had their work cut out, I think they done extremely well. The only real swap we had was Molly and Barley in the 'wrong' team. This slowed both teams a little, but only by about 0.5 - 1 sec each.
The 'people power' on Sunday wasn't as bad as Saturday, although we had Claire running two dogs in the team. But we did have 4 handlers and 1 (cold) dog holder (Thanks to Thelma, Sally's mum!). The team consisted of Bazil, Eddie, Badger, Barley and Breeze on stand by!
We were up against the Shooting Stars first, and on the blue lane (Eddie's bogie lane!). They were seeded below us, so we needed a win here. The dogs ran well in there first leg, and won. They took the next two legs when Eddie ran out! So we swapped him for Breeze, and she managed to bring the ball back (much to my relief!) in the next two legs. We won 3-2.
Still on the blue lane, and we were against Dorset Dynamos, who are faster than us. (Luckily) they were having problems, so Eddie was given a second chance, and raced well (even though he ogled every time at the opposition!). We won 3-0.
Jan was able to relax a little when we went to the red lane, against Bad Dog Meecos. Unfortunately, they were much faster than us, and we lost 3-0.
After a long break, we had our final two races. On the red lane again (to Jan's delight!) we were up against the Knights. On seed times, we were faster, but they had 4 fast collies, so I wasn't too sure how we would do. But they decided to use Willow, their height dog, and we managed to beat them 3-0.
We now looked to be going into a 3 way run off unless we could win our last race. On paper there was no way it would be possible, as TVR were running consistently sub 20 sec, where as we were doing 20.20 -20.50. We were also on the blue lane! So Eddie had to be on his best behaviour…………..he ran well, but did ogle and the racing went to 2-2. We weren't too far behind, and I decided to bring Breeze in, to see if we could make up that extra couple of feet we needed. Racing looked to be neck and neck, and it was down to the last dogs! And we got a light! Even so, they still beat us by half a dog, so it didn't make any difference. We did however, record our fastest time of the day, 19.95 secs, and that was with 2 height dogs.
So finally, the run off. It was between us, TVR and Dorset Dynamos. Breeze was used in the blue lane, against TVR, but we lost that one, and again, on the red lane with Ed, we just lost out to Dorset. So we came 4th in Div 2. But we did have some excellent racing.
And many congratulations to Monty on gaining his Silver Award (which he actually gained in November)