Our day started out misty and cool, which I thought ideal for the dogs. We tried a new format at Southam today; because we had 18 entries at Level 1 we had four judges, each taking a search area. This enabled teams to get through in good time (just over an hour) and weren’t hanging around in the light rain for too long.

I’ve had feedback from several competitors who said for them it worked well as their dogs get tired when waiting 3 or 4 hours to complete a trial, but for the few dogs who were used to resting in their car between searches, it was trickier as they couldn’t get to their vehicles.

Levels 2 and 3 had 2 judges each so we were able to crack on through those too. My thanks to our wonderful judges, Becky Harris, Sue Abbott-Dixon, Geof Dixon and Liz Ormerod for being so kind and encouraging to the competitors and for doing such a great job.

It was a day of extremes, with some very experienced and good dogs seemingly refusing to play. However, we also had some brilliant work from the less experienced. I’ve got to mention Charlotte and Mabel, who after only 3 lessons managed a second place at Level 1 and a clean sweep to boot!

There were some brilliant searches at all levels, with vehicle and exterior searches giving the best results. Boxes and luggage seemed to cause all sorts of problems as the day wore on and as things really hotted up weather wise. This was where most teams got unstuck. All except Carole Thornley and Zoe who achieved a great find in 6 seconds in the Level 1 search!! Fantastic.

Massive congratulations to our 2 teams who achieved their Level 2 excellence awards. Our first place winner with a perfect score of 100, Linda Johnston and Tassel, and our 3^rd place team Harry Latusek and Rosie of Windermere on 99.5 were delighted to receive their rosettes. Well done both.

As with all the Trials it wouldn’t have happened without the help of kind and enthusiastic supporting volunteers. Huge thank you to Sue Benson for organising the great venue and for stewarding. Thank you to the scribes, Judy Byrne, Sarah Beason, Harry Latusek, Margaret Evans and Paul Bailey. Thank you and well-done Margaret for providing a lovely lunch and teas and coffees, as well as the scribing. Thanks to Lynda Crossland for doing the registration and for greeting everyone so warmly. Massive thanks also to hubby Paul for kindly entering all the results electronically, which helped immensely with the adding up, and getting the results ready to be sent off tonight.

And last, but most importantly a huge thankyou to all of you who travelled to compete at todays Trial. I hope you enjoyed your time with us, and if you didn’t qualify this time remember there is always another day.

Karen Kendall

Trial Manager