8th November - All aged retriever field trial

Results of our All Aged Retriever Trial, Foremark by kind permission of Philip Bishop.

Foremark can be a challenging ground!

Our Host, Philip Bishop, is always keen to help us have a good day and today was no exception. Phil had carefully planned the proceedings and we started the Trial Walking-up game cover and maize crops with a woodland drive to finish.

Our All Girl team of Judges, Lynn Mitchell, Charlotte Jeffrey, Vanessa King and Angie Cooper worked their way through the card giving all the dogs and their handlers a fair and even chance of success.

There are lots of keys to a successful Trial and one of the most important is the Guns! Our team today, all keen to help us achieve our goals was made up of Pete Bancroft, Steve “Merv” Mear, Chris Burrows, Dave Cooke, Steve “Rosie” Baker and Brian Wilshaw. Some of these Lads have shot for us for years and we are extremely grateful to them for their loyal support.

After a long day and some very interesting work our Judges finally closed their books and the following awards were made.

First Place, winning The Gossmount Trophy presented by Kevin and Jan Marriott and The Roston Cup for Best Lady Handler donated by Gregg and Carol Shaw was Jayne Coley with Mekoro Shot Marker of Waterford. In her winner's speech, Jayne praised Phil Bishop for allowing us to use a "Proper Ground" for our Trial, "just like Trialling used to be"!

Second winning The Spirit of Blythe Trophy donated by John Cartwright and The Thorpe Cloud Clary Trophy donated by Graham and Diane Barrett was Ellena Swift Nunneley handling Swiftlands Briar. (Ellena was second last time we had a Trial here in 2019)!

Our winners received Prizes and Goodie Bags from our Generous Sponsors, Skinners, Sporting Saint, Baileys Shooting and Country Wear, Tuffies Dog Beds, BASC, Twicebrewed Twines, Pernamax Canine and Acme Whistles.

As always, "The Dove Valley Team" of Mikki Deville, John Mee, Joanne Walker, Henry Carney, Steve Wilshaw, Ann and Brian Blake, Sean Farrell, Mike Thompstone, Kev Marriott and John Mead rose to the challenge to ensure we had another great day's sport.

Thank you all.