It was a pleasure to be asked to judge the L1 trial at Walcote Memorial Hall, Leics the first trial for Anne Tucker. It was great meeting new ‘Scentwork’ competitors and what an enthusiastic bunch they were. The hall was very spacious with a very good outside area with both grass and tarmac areas to choose from. I was introduced to my scribe Kieran who was brilliant getting use to the ‘Scentwork UK’ scoring system really quickly and efficiently and especially at the end of the day with all the adding up. I started with the tables and chairs and it is such a relief for the judge when the first competitor gets the first ‘Find’ correct. Well in fact it went from strength to strength with everyone passing this section with Claire & Bowser and Will & Charlie both correctly calling the alert within 15 seconds! Next was the vehicle search and I hid the scented article on the bottom of the rear wheel. Unfortunately our first two competitors called it incorrectly and I was wondering if the slight breeze which had annoyingly decided to appear would cause this to be a difficult search. However it was much to my relief when ‘Stan’ the labradoodle sped of around the vehicle at great speed taking his handler Steve to the correct spot alerting in just 13 seconds. After the vehicle search it was nice to go into the village hall and have some of Jenny’s most delicious cakes. There were scones, jam, cream, Victoria sponge, chocolate brownies almost a complete picnic so thank you Jenny for looking after everyone and suppling myself and my scribe tea & coffee too. I set out the boxes and luggage search and hoped that this wouldn’t trip up some of the teams as this search so often does. Again Bowser didn’t make mum Claire wait too long and neither did Lexie with Sandra. It was lovely watching Sandra’s nice quiet handling and also Karen with baby ‘Barley’ whose new  indication seems to be to stamp your rear feet up and down several times. We then went outside for the last search the ‘Exterior Search and I hid the scented article on a large red dice. Again most teams called this correctly giving Ellen & Cody and Jo & Milo clean sweeps with very good marks too. Sara & Tia gave us a heart stopping moment as Tia was very interested in someone the other side of the fence but this team did enough to pass the L1 test. Commiserations to Ros & Justine who unfortunately missed out this time. Both dogs indicated on all the scented articles in all the searches but  both handlers just need to spot the subtle cues that both dogs are giving, you will both get there I am sure. Again well done Anne for running a very successful and enjoyable first trial.