Again we had 4 campers, and almost perfect weather for flyball. Saturday was cloudy with some sun, but a lovely cool breeze. Sunday was warmer, as the breeze wasn't as strong!
Saturday started off with Jelly Babies (Katie, Breeze, Badger, Ben & Angel) in Div 8. Ben stood out of the first race, so Andy could help Elaine with the lights, as it was Katie (& Elaine's) first competition. We were up against the extrabuccs, who were having reliability problems, so we won 3-0, best time 24.17 (Angel had her motor shoes on, and Breeze's bum was on fire, having stolen Chicken Tikka the night before!). And there our luck ended, as the remaining teams were much faster than us. I think Katie enjoyed her first competition, and ran extremely well, not putting a paw wrong all day. You would never have known it was her first time out! Well done to Elaine as well!!
Allsorts (Beano, Meg, Tosh & Beau) were seeded 1 in Div 5. With last week's disappointing end, it was decided to run Beau last. We got off to a bad start loosing 3-0 to the Nothern Bytes who were bottom seed. Our next 2 races went the same way, 3-0 to the opposition.
We went into the afternoon session, hoping to beat Barkshire, but not totally convinced, and expecting to come away with 5th or 6th place. But luck came our way. Barkshire had to push their passes to win, we had plenty to spare, but weren't pushing these young dogs, so we had nothing to lose, so to speak! We were 2-2, and the last 2 dogs went out together. Luckily for us (not for Penny!) Penny slipped on the grass, and ended up on the floor, so her dog came back slowly, and Beau came back to win the race (that gave us 5th place!). And our last race against the Molten Monarchs (same as last week, so perhaps a bit of a 'grudge match'!), looked like it could be close again. And it was. The Monarchs were pushing their passes to win, and ended up with a dog running out. We kept to reliability, and won 3-1. Un-be-known to us, we then ended up having a 3 way sudden death run off for 3rd - 5th place! We managed to just beat Nuneaton, and then swapped lanes, to race against the Monarchs again. Unfortunately Beano ran out, but Judith kept calm, as the opposition also had a light, and allowed Beau back before letting Beano go again. And we won it. So this gave us 3rd place, far better than I ever imagined after the mornings racing, and some excellent racing. Our best time was 20.05. And Beano and Beau gained their FDi titles. Well done to both!
After a long days racing, prize giving eventually finished just before 9.00pm. We went wearily back 'to camp' to start the BBQ's. Tina, Andy & Becky stayed to join us. And we eventually went for midnight dog walk about 11pm! The chatter was very limited, but there was a lot of Oohing and Aahing, as each of us found the many holes in the uneven ground (but it wasn't until broad daylight the following day, that Krystal managed to end up on the floor!)
Sunday was Hotdogs turn (Abby, Monty, Rosie & Ollie). We were up against some of the Northern teams, whom we only ever meet at Daventry, so it made a change to the usual racing! The down side though, we were bottom seeds! Having got used to this position in Div 1, the team put everything into their racing, and all dogs raced well. We lost out first 3 races to Nuneaton Flyers, Greeny Grasshoppers and Molton Marvels. After an extra hours delay, due to a fault with the lights, we had a by in our first race, as the Podsters had gone home, and our last and by far the closest race was against the Nuneaton Bees. Unfortunately we didn't quite have the speed, and lost, but we did get our best time of the day, 19.61