Thankyou to Emma for inviting me along to co judge the level 2 trial,

alongside Sarah Witkin.A Thankyou also to my scribe,Diane..
It was a lovely day,with a gentle breeze.
17 teams competing.I was tasked with judging the outside searches and commenced with the vehicle search.

Vehicles
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3 vehicles were lined up nose to tail.I hid the 1st scent in the front number plate of vehicle 1,the 2nd scent I placed in the near side sill of vehicle 2.
16 of the teams finding both with reasonable ease.9 finding in less than 70 seconds.
Lovely tracking back along the sill to source,shown by Wendy and Ella and Emily Jane and Becky.

Exterior
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I laid out some 14 items for this search,placing the scents in a set of car jump leads and a small tool box.I placed these left and right of the search area.
15 teams were successful here with the others finding only 1.
Excellent handling and searching shown here by,Leanne and Jasper in a mere 26 seconds.They were closely followed home by Anita and Lacey,Elizabeth and Bodie,Sarah and Jack and Natalie and Henry,all in under 40nseconds.

I think it would suffice to say these teams were a pleasure judge.
1st and 2nd places were within seconds of each other on time in the final placings.
Bearing in mind that 20 minutes in total is allocated to find all 8 scents.Our top 5 achieving this in under 4 minutes..
I wish you all the best of luck in your future trials,and hopefully will meet up with some of you at sometime in the future.

Following a short lunch break,we moved on to the level 5 trial,which I had the privilege to judge.Sharing the scribing for me was Helen…
16 teams competed at this level.

Interior 1
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This was set up in the kitchen area,3 scents were hidden,behind a radiator(c),bottom corner of a door(g) and under a cooker handle(c),some 60cm from ground level.3 minutes was allocated.
13 of the teams finding all 3 with reasonable ease, the remaining 3 finding two…
Some lovely searching and handling shown by Kelly and Rosie,Jill and Drama,Karen and Gunner and Ruth and Mint.Their times ranging between 42 seconds to 80….

Exterior
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I chose to hide 5 scents in this area,which was made up,of a courtyard,with a walled area containing numerous nooks and crannies also doors,pipes,man hole covers,a large wheel barrow and trolley Jack.4.5 minutes was allocated.
The hides were sited at the bottom of a door(c),a small diameter overflow pipe(g),a wooden bar,attached to the wall,approx 2.3 meters in length,I placed 1 each,of cloves and gun oil at either end of this.The final scent(g) was tucked into the edge of a small manhole cover,adjoining the wall.
This proved more testing for the teams,with only 6 finding all of the scents,the other finds were varied.The scent causing the most difficulty was the one hidden on the wooden bar,to the right,With 7 of the teams failing to identify this particular one.
Once again excellent displays shown by,Karen and Gunner,Ruth and Mint,Kelly and Rosie and Jill and Drama.

Interior 2
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This was set up in the main hall which contained a couple of hoovers,nicely placed against the wall,near to the start line.The remainder of the search area being made up of radiators,electric sockets,tables and skirting board the full perimeter of the room.
4 scents were laid out,2 cloves and 2 gun.I allocated some 3 minutes for this particular search.No need to go into detail here as all teams,excepting one found all 4 comfortably.A nice way for the teams to finish of their day.
Leading the way home in this search were Lynn and Google,Julia and Joshua and Ruth and Mint ,in some 54,68 and 73 seconds respectively.

I had judged the majority of these teams at some time in the past,in varying levels.It was lovely to see how far they had progressed.
My congratulations go to the eventual rosette winners on the day…
1…Ruth and Mint…2…Karen and Gunner…3…Jill and Drama…4…Kelly and Rosie…
The top five teams on the day were equally matched with only seconds separating the top 2.
It was a lovely afternoon,and a pleasure to watch yoursevles and dogs all working.
Good luck to you all in the future….