Thank you again to Marie for putting on this very well organised trial, which included a dry day. The clove was placed under a chair and the gun oil inside a locker door, height of which allowed all sizes of dogs to easily get to it as I don’t think it is fair to ask the large dogs to search at ground level as I think this favours the smaller dogs. The vehicle search was combination of a car where the clove was placed on a spur of the offside front wheel, with the gun oil placed in a hole in the wall, 2/3rds of the way along, but well clear of the car. The container search had gun oil under the zip of a handbag and the clove inside an upturned small wooden box. The exterior search was conducted under the cover of an open sided barn, with gun oil on the inside of the support of a small jump wing and the clove inside an empty Bosch drill box. As can be seen from the results, all the teams qualified, with five clean sweeps. The standard of handling was good and all teams should have no trouble when they move up to Level 4. Particular mention should be made of Marney Wells with Mustard the Staffie placed 4th this week, having been 4th in Level 2 the previous week. I am sure we will continue to see this team in the placings as they move up through the levels. Barbara Oldham with Prue the Beagle are another team to watch out for , qualifying in Level 2 last week as well. Congratulations to those from the West Country who made their long journeys very worthwhile, I am sure we will see you heading east again before long. I know there was concern amongst some of the competitors because I deducted points for them “blocking” the scents they had already found – I read this as getting in the dog’s way, as defined in the guidelines as I believe this is intended to even up the playing field with those whose dogs search unobstructed and do not return to a previously identified scent.