What a fantastic week end we had! I think all the dogs that competed, collected at least one rosette each, if not in flyball, it was in the agility classes (or cleverdogs if your name is Daisy!)
We had 8 camping unit this week end, with 16 members staying. The majority arrived Friday. Some arrived in the dark, and someone even tried his driving skills in the show jumping rings! Talk about showing off, whist towing a caravan! It's a good job there wasn't a Chinese man at the gate! (private joke just ask Dave! Ed.)
Allsorts was seed 1 in Div 2 running on the Saturday. Team dogs were Abby, Monty, Rosie, Spencer & Daisy as reserve. Handlers Chris, Kay, Hilary, Dave & myself with Claire box loading.
Race 1: Allsorts 'v' Nova Next Generation (seed 6) Both teams experienced problems with dogs running wide and early passes. Rosie began with some run rounds but Kay, with some quick re-runs, ensured we ended up winning 3-1. (32.27(W), 27.02(W), 31.70(L), 19.49(W))
Race 2: Allsorts 'v' Northern Bytes (seed 5) Rosie went for another run round in the first heat but there were no errors in the second making it 1-1. In the 3rd & 4th Spencer joined Rosie on her run down for her ball. Lost 1-3 (26.26(L), 19.58(W), N/T(L), 27.15(L))
Race 3: Allsorts 'v' Trying 4 Mutts (seed 4) Some good close racing and taken to 4 heats to win race 3-1. (19.71(W), 19.61(W), 25.03(L), 19.50(W))
Race 4: Allsorts 'v' Crazy Crusaders (seed 3) This was going to be a difficult one against the non existent Crusaders, as we were running for times. All 3 heats ran with no errors (we thought). The second heat gave us our fastest run of the day. (20.04(W), 19.33(W), 35.45(W))
Race 5: Allsorts 'v' Sheffield Sprinters This was the crunch match, as Sprinters had not lost a race. We could win the Div on count back if we could beat them. The first heat we lost as Spencer followed Rosie down the flyball lane. No errors in the 2nd, pulled it back to 1-1 and giving Monty his Gold Award. We lost the 3rd making it 1-2. With Dave running Monty as 3rd dog, Spencer was running down after him as Rosie made her runs. Hilary came to the rescue to run Monty, leaving Dave to help Chris with Spencer. We took the 4th heat to level it out at 2-2. So the pressure was on as it was all on the last heat. Also the race had by now attracted a fair number of spectators. No errors and we took the 5th to win and take the Div.
That was the end of the mornings racing and it was the turn of the starters in the afternoon, while some of us looked at the agility rings.
Saturday afternoon saw our starters in their first competition. We were allowed up to 7 dogs in a team, so the chosen ones were Beau, Beano, Meg, Bailey, Angel, Tosh and Boots. There were 5 teams in total, and the format was run over 2 days, with each team in a round robin both days for which they gained points per leg, and then for extra points, you nominated your fastest pairs on Saturday and fastest singles on Sunday.
The team, who were with out Tosh on Saturday, apparently raced extremely well, and Beano & Meg were nominated for the pairs. The team won 6 out of 12 legs, with a best time of 23.52. A tiring Meg & Beano went on to win 7 out of 12 pairs races, with their best time coming in the last leg, a very credible 10.79. We ended the day in 3rd place.
Other successes on Saturday were: Angel CR in Elem. Jumping, Monty 2nd Elem. Helter Skelter, Abby 1st Midi jumping.
Sunday was part 2 of the starters. Guided by Claire who had organised the starters on Saturday, we sorted out which dogs raced which teams. All the dogs had roughly an equal amount of racing, although Angel only raced once, as she wasn't to keen on the gunfire, but she managed to retrieve a ball, albeit slower than on Saturday! We managed to win 6 out of our 12 races again, which put us in 2nd place by 1 point. Our best time of the day was 23.18.
With some fast dogs out there, we had to try and maintain our slight advantage over the Mad Mutts team, who had nominated their very fast lurcher, Cody, for the singles. Tosh & Beano were our nominated singles dogs. To encourage Tosh to go faster, Claire had me standing at the box and running back. She also had a few false starts! I don't think Tosh minded in the least, but me…………..! Tosh's best time was 4.33 and Beano's (with out box, which makes him slower), was 4.70. Between them they won 8 out of 12 races, but by the end we were relying on Cody being beaten by the other teams. As it was, Cody was tiring and making mistakes, so we managed to keep our 2nd place over all.
Other successes on Sunday were: Monty 7th Elem. Jumping, Badger 8th Elem. Jumping, Tosh 9th Elem. Agility, Breeze 1st Midi Jumping, Daisy 6th ABC cleverdogs.
Monday was the turn for the Hotdogs in Div 1, although we were not going to be competitive, it suited us, as Rachel & I were unable to compete on Saturday! The team dogs were, Molly, Ollie, Badger (who raced all day) Breeze, Tosh & Meggie (first sanctioned event for the 2 starters, so we used the flat fronted box for the first time in competition). Unfortunately for Meg, the extra 'hype' that comes with Div 1 dogs (or any racing team!) was just to much for her at this stage, and in the warm up, she was running round the jumps. So she joined us in the ring, and used the practice time when she could. And finally she put a good run in.
Tosh played in the first race against Melton Rovers. We were 2-1 up, as the Rovers were making mistakes, but there was no way we could beat them if they got it right. As I didn't really want Tosh to gain his FD title, Breeze was brought in and we lost 3-2. With late passes from Tosh, we gained our best time of the day 19.89.
Our next race was against Jumping Jacks, and again Breeze played, and we lost 3-0. Having had a few mishaps at Windsor, both Molly & Ollie were racing well, much to Chris, Dave & Rachel's relief!!
Tosh went in the 3rd race, to give him a run in the opposite lane, and if we were going to try and win a race, our only chance was against Blackpool Supa Nova. We narrowly won our first leg, but couldn't quite keep it up, losing 3-1.
Tosh was well in his stride now, and I decided to keep racing him. We lost 3-0 in the final race to Mad 4 Mutts, so coming 5th in Div 1.
Other successes on Monday were: Angel CR in Elem. Jumping and Agility, Fliss CR Elem Jumping, Breeze 1st Midi Jumping. And finally, many congratulations to Kay & Monty on achieving the Gold Award (15,000 points). It has only taken him just over 3 ½ yrs to gain this award. And 4 ½ yrs ago, he wasn't even interested in a ball, let alone pick one up! Well Done!