Level 1
1 Phil Gordon-Smith – Kiwi – 99.9
2 Sue Roberton – Isla – 99.4
3 Derek Richings – Daisy – 99
4 Jacey Turner – Twiglet – 98.65
5 Stuart Sweet – Woody – 98.5
6 Regina Middleton – Paris – 98
7 Yvonne Brown – Lottie – 98
8 Jill Norris – Lady – 97.75
9 Pat Poynter – Metz – 97
10 Penny Varnes – Ludo – 96.5
11 Chris Miles – Mila – 96.25
12 Peggy Sidewater – Reglands Rex – 94.5
13 Jackie McDevitt – Lucy – 77.5
14 Anne Pettitpierre – Gem – 76
15 Carol Smith – Toby – 76
16 Claire Hindle – Benji – 75.75
17 Pat Somerset – Tilly – 75.25
Level 5
1 Zoe Heritage – Teg – 130
2 Chris Clements – Queeva-Diva – 129.5
3 Sara Wren – Tia – 109.75
4 Marie Poole – Liberty – 109.5
5 Felicity Veasey – Jet – 99.75
6 Anni Martin – Daisy – 99.5
7 Neil Dolman – Oscar – 99.25
8 Denise Pile – Butty – 99
9 Margery Grant – Alfred – 99
Tina Schuster
I was excited having been asked to judge a Level 5 trial! I was trying to make plans for the searches, however, not having seen the venue before, I had to resign myself to making a decision once I got to Mark. What an amazing hall Pippa has been able to secure – lots of rooms of varying sizes!
For Interior 1, I chose the bar area, which was 1/2 carpet, and a vinyl floor “behind the bar”. Only Felicity’s Jet struggled with the floor and it was interesting to see how many people assumed that as the arear behind the bar was small, only one hide would be there (and the other 3 in the larger part of the room).
For the Exterior search, I chose the building and anything attached to the building. We had no fouling incidents surprisingly and a lot of dogs and handlers worked and searched very well – especially as there were no articles at all. Thank you Lynne for dealing with the kids that came rushing in to watch, thankfully unflappable Sara and Tia!
For Interior 2 search, I selected a storage room, with lots of “articles” to search, including folded up table tennis tables and chairs and lots of cabinet doors and not to forget “the ladder”.
Shelley Stubbington
Thank you to Pippa for inviting me to co-judge the Level One with her at this great venue. The weather was lovely all afternoon, if a little breezy at times, though thankfully cooler than the recent heatwave conditions.
With my mum, Kay Jennings, ready to help as my scribe, I got started with the Tables & Chairs inside whilst Pippa started with the Exterior Items outdoors. The hall was a good size, and I had set up a simple rectangle formation of two tables with 8 chairs spread evenly around the sides in one end of the hall, with the scent on the furthest chair on the right-hand side. 15 of the 18 dogs and handlers were successful in finding the scent, and I think for those that didn’t it was mostly caused by pooling of the scent on the surrounding chairs, and dogs unfortunately showing too much interest in this. There were several stand-out performances for this search, with Chris and Mila getting straight to task and working together well, Sue and Isla nailing it in 17 seconds, and Penny and Ludo putting in a really good search. Both Toby and Lottie were really worried by an unfamiliar floor surface, but with lovely, calm and gentle encouragement from their handlers, both successfully completed the search, which was brilliant to see. Metz almost gave me a heart attack watching him work, giving his handler Pat several false indications, but thankfully she knew exactly how to read him, and how to spot the difference when he finally gave the correct indication! No-one was willing him on more than me!
After a quick swap around, I moved outdoors to start the Vehicle search, whilst Pippa headed in to judge the Boxes & Luggage. When we placed the scent out, it wasn’t too windy, but by the time we started searching it was certainly gusting quite a bit! The scent was placed on the front left wheel, with handlers starting their search on the back of the car. The wind was carrying the scent under the car and out the other side, which meant a number of dogs picked it up on the far side and followed it round to the source. It was good to see several handlers checking the wind direction before setting off. There were again some really great searches, with Yvonne and Lottie, Derek and Daisy, Phil and Kiwi, Jill and Lady, and Regina and Paris all putting in really good performances. The two standout searches were Jacey and Twiglet, who began with a lovely start line set up followed by some very methodical searching and some lovely lead handling, and Stuart and Woody who completed their search in a blinding 5 seconds when Woody air scented from the line and went racing down to the hide!
Many thanks to Pippa for organising another fabulous trial, to the competitors for taking part with such positivity, and to all the helpers who made the day happen.
Thank you for making me smile, Alfred (and Margery) – a very eager searcher you have there!
It was great to see that all the handlers and dogs had successfully moved on from searching articles and made the leap to Level 5 and hopefully beyond!
I would like to say thanks to my lovely scribe and white dog runner, Lynne as well as Pippa for asking me to judge!
| T&C - A/F | T&C - H | T&C - T | ES - A/F | ES - H | ES - T | VS - A/F | VS - H | VS - T | B&L - A/F | B&L - H | B&L - T | Marks | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A/F = Alert Find | H = Handling | T = Time (seconds) | |||||||||||||
| Tables & Chairs | Exterior Search | Vehicle Search | Boxes & Luggage | Totals | |||||||||||
| Level 1 | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |
| 1 | Phil Gordon-Smith – Kiwi | 20 | 4.9 | 18 | 20 | 5 | 7 | 20 | 5 | 13 | 20 | 5 | 8 | 99.9 | 46 |
| 2 | Sue Roberton - Isla | 20 | 5 | 17 | 20 | 4.5 | 7 | 20 | 4.9 | 20 | 20 | 5 | 15 | 99.4 | 59 |
| 3 | Derek Richings – Daisy | 20 | 5 | 17 | 20 | 4 | 40 | 20 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 5 | 11 | 99 | 83 |
| 4 | Jacey Turner – Twiglet | 20 | 4.9 | 66 | 20 | 4 | 56 | 20 | 5 | 39 | 20 | 4.75 | 43 | 98.65 | 204 |
| 5 | Stuart Sweet – Woody | 20 | 4.75 | 52 | 20 | 4 | 11 | 20 | 5 | 5 | 20 | 4.75 | 9 | 98.5 | 77 |
| 6 | Regina Middleton – Paris | 20 | 4.5 | 36 | 20 | 4 | 18 | 20 | 4.75 | 19 | 20 | 4.75 | 20 | 98 | 93 |
| 7 | Yvonne Brown – Lottie | 20 | 4.75 | 39 | 20 | 3.5 | 35 | 20 | 5 | 19 | 20 | 4.75 | 64 | 98 | 157 |
| 8 | Jill Norris – Lady | 20 | 4.5 | 26 | 20 | 3.5 | 37 | 20 | 5 | 11 | 20 | 4.75 | 8 | 97.75 | 82 |
| 9 | Pat Poynter – Metz | 20 | 4 | 127 | 20 | 4.5 | 28 | 20 | 4.5 | 102 | 20 | 4 | 62 | 97 | 319 |
| 10 | Penny Varnes – Ludo | 20 | 5 | 16 | 20 | 3.5 | 70 | 20 | 4 | 47 | 20 | 4 | 45 | 96.5 | 178 |
| 11 | Chris Miles – Mila | 20 | 5 | 29 | 20 | 2 | 33 | 20 | 4.75 | 28 | 20 | 4.5 | 39 | 96.25 | 129 |
| 12 | Peggy Sidewater – Reglands Rex | 20 | 4.75 | 44 | 20 | 2 | 49 | 20 | 3.75 | 151 | 20 | 4 | 41 | 94.5 | 285 |
| 13 | Jackie McDevitt – Lucy | 20 | 4.25 | 95 | 20 | 4.75 | 11 | 0 | 4 | 44 | 20 | 4.5 | 63 | 77.5 | 213 |
| 14 | Anne Pettitpierre – Gem | 20 | 5 | 28 | 20 | 2 | 32 | 0 | 4 | 22 | 20 | 5 | 13 | 76 | 95 |
| 15 | Carol Smith – Toby | 20 | 4.75 | 35 | 20 | 3.5 | 109 | 0 | 3.75 | 88 | 20 | 4 | 24 | 76 | 256 |
| 16 | Claire Hindle – Benji | 0 | 4 | 23 | 20 | 2 | 15 | 20 | 4.75 | 22 | 20 | 5 | 8 | 75.75 | 68 |
| 17 | Pat Somerset – Tilly | 0 | 4 | 42 | 20 | 2 | 42 | 20 | 4.75 | 24 | 20 | 4.5 | 15 | 75.25 | 123 |
| WA | P | B | D | T | WA | P | B | D | T | WA | P | B | D | T | WA | P | B | D | P+B+D | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WA = Wrong Alerts ( 4 = elimination ) | P = Points (articles found X 10) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| B = Bonus (10 if all items found) | D = Deductions | T = time (seconds) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Interior Search 1 | Interior Search 2 | Exterior Search | Totals | |||||||||||||||||||
| No of items | Time allowed | No of items | Time allowed | No of items | Time allowed | P+B-D = Points + Bonus - Deductions | ||||||||||||||||
| WA | P | B | D | T | WA | P | B | D | T | WA | P | B | D | T | WA | P | B | D | P+B-D | Time | ||
| 1 | Zoe Heritage – Teg | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 240 | 0 | 30 | 10 | 0 | 58 | 0 | 50 | 10 | 0 | 71 | 0 | 110 | 20 | 0 | 130 | 369 |
| 2 | Chris Clements – Queeva-Diva | 1 | 30 | 0 | 0.25 | 240 | 0 | 30 | 10 | 0.25 | 135 | 0 | 50 | 10 | 0 | 124 | 1 | 110 | 20 | 0.5 | 129.5 | 499 |
| 3 | Sara Wren – Tia | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0.25 | 240 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 180 | 0 | 50 | 10 | 0 | 205 | 0 | 100 | 10 | 0.25 | 109.75 | 625 |
| 4 | Marie Poole – Liberty | 1 | 30 | 0 | 0.25 | 230 | 1 | 20 | 0 | 0.25 | 180 | 0 | 50 | 10 | 0 | 238 | 2 | 100 | 10 | 0.5 | 109.5 | 648 |
| 5 | Felicity Veasey – Jet | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 222 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0.25 | 180 | 0 | 50 | 10 | 0 | 176 | 0 | 90 | 10 | 0.25 | 99.75 | 578 |
| 6 | Anni Martin – Daisy | 1 | 30 | 0 | 0.25 | 240 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0.25 | 180 | 0 | 50 | 10 | 0 | 133 | 1 | 90 | 10 | 0.5 | 99.5 | 553 |
| 7 | Neil Dolman – Oscar | 1 | 30 | 0 | 0.5 | 240 | 0 | 30 | 10 | 0.25 | 121 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 300 | 1 | 90 | 10 | 0.75 | 99.25 | 661 |
| 8 | Denise Pile – Butty | 1 | 20 | 0 | 0.25 | 240 | 0 | 30 | 10 | 0.25 | 178 | 1 | 40 | 0 | 0.5 | 300 | 2 | 90 | 10 | 1 | 99 | 718 |
| 9 | Margery Grant – Alfred | 2 | 40 | 10 | 0.5 | 240 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0.25 | 180 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0.25 | 300 | 2 | 90 | 10 | 1 | 99 | 720 |
To follow