31st January 2023 - Novice AV Spaniel

Our last Trial of the season was our Novice AV Spaniel at Cubley yesterday by kind permission of Mr and Mrs D Legh and Headkeeper, Shane Wood.

 

Due to the uncertainty of birds, we did not get the go ahead for this Trial until mid December but we still received a good entry.

I suppose you could argue that on the last but one day of the season, expectations of plenty of birds could be quite low but in this case, knowing how Shane had prepared the wood for us, you would have thought we were in the middle of November!

After our welcome and Bacon Cobs, Shane led us the short distance to the wood fringed by a Game Crop where we started the Trial.

 

With our Judges, Kev Richardson and Graham Burton on the right and Andrew Faulkner and Russ Woodward on the left, we were soon underway with Game coming steadily, despatched with varying degrees of success by our Guns, Brian Wilshaw, James Luxford, Jim Thompson and Yours Truly!

 

Our wood consisted of light bramble and bracken with lots of log piles and was ideal for Novice Dogs.

Some good work was seen but it has to be said that one or two Dogs were not quite ready for the demands of a Trial.

By 1pm we were done and dusted and the following awards were made.

 

First place winning The Liz Bedford Trophy, The Woodmagic Trophy for Gun’s Choice and The Keeper’s Choice Trophy donated by Mr and Mrs D Legh was Oliver Brierley handling his 20 month old Springer Bitch, Northdeanwoo Beth.

Second was awarded to Karen Pinker with her 3 year old Springer Bitch, Dunnbrigg Chatternag.

Third place was Paul McGregor handling his Cocker Spaniel Dog, Dakotagun Shaw.

 

Fourth was Brody Chequer with his Springer Bitch, Eborakon Callisto of Chequersmate.

A Certificate of Merit was awarded to Sue Stephens with her Springer Dog, Dunbrigg Vaughn at Quingrave.

Thanks as always to "The Dove Valley Team" and to everyone involved at Cubley for their help in running this Trial and of course to our Generous Sponsors, Skinners, Sporting Saint, BASC, Gundog Journal, Animology, Twicebrewed Twines and ACME Whistles.

 

Our Raffle raised £142 for The Gamekeepers Welfare Trust.

This was a fabulous Trial to bring the curtain down on a difficult season and we look forward to seeing some of you during the coming Working Test season.