Hosted by the Southern Golden Retriever Society. at Buckhurst Park, courtesy of Lord & Lady De La Warr. Report by Judy Lunt  ( second on left)

Four of us were lucky enough to be invited to run for GRCS,  Sandy Brown  & Myself ( Judy Lunt) ran the Open Dogs and Erica Munro Ferguson and Mandy McDonald the 2 Novices.

It was a very special weekend.  A beautiful estate, sunny, though blustery weather, the host club was welcoming and the Tests & day especially well organised.   Twelve Clubs had entered teams but unfortunately  Northumbria had to withdraw as two of their dogs went down with Kennel cough.

There were 6 Tests for all dogs in the team & then 1 "Joker " Test .  The dog for that had to be nominated before we knew what the Test would be, which led to a lot of finger crossing.The Tests were varied , covering water, walk up, jumping, picking up situations, hunting in every sort of ground - from long grass to briar and thistles and a lot of steadiness, we seemed to spend a lot of time with everyone, whether working or not, off the lead.

Some, like the walk up, were more like an ordinary Test.  There was a shot in front with dummy thrown into long grass & the Judge named the Novice to go, then another shot and a named Open dog sent for the "rabbit" which just happened to be out of sight and immediately in front of a wood.

Others were real Team efforts, like the "end of drive, picking up" Test.  We started down, off the lead, to where a gun was finishing his drive, the briar was a bit thick for us to be in line. The Judge was keeping a beady eye on our approach from between us & the gun.  The gun told us here were four birds down, one a runner,one hit hard and he thought dead and two nearer ones that were well & truly dead.  Who went for which bird, and in what order was up to us. the only stipolation was that we had to work one at a time.

Obviously the runner had to be collected first, so I sent Phoebe to find that, then there was the " hit hard , he thought dead" one  so Sandy sent Rookie for that and Erica  with Levi and Mandy with Whisper went for the others. They may have been nearer but they were difficult retrieves with nasty undergrowth as a barrier, before the little paths they needed to get into the wood.

        The "Joker" Test  was a drive with guns, dummies, balls and dummy launchers going off all over the place and crashing into trees and water immediately behind us.   Not one dog ran in  and I reckoned they all deserved 20 for that  but then they had a blind, dummies between two points, in a ditch bordering a wood  and with a whole gallery watching them !! 

      Everyone was successful, though some more so than others.

It had flowed very smoothly, no hold ups between the Tests and we were collapsed eating lunch in the sun realy quite early.   After lunch there was a run off for top scoring Open dog, between

Richard Ashdown (for Wales)   and Karen McCartney (for Eastern Counties) , which was won by Karen.

The top scoring Novice dog and overall Top scorer was Steve Crookes who s dog had three 20s and three 19 s.   The Golden Retriever Club was the Team winner by just one point from Eastern Counties GRC.

We neither covered ourselves with glory, or disgraced ourselves, had Tests that we were really pleased with and ones we would have preferred to go a little more smoothly and We all had a really good day.

     At the very end of the prizegiving it was Mandy s turn to be in the spotlight.   She was called forward, of course wondered what was up   ---- and was presented with the " Box"    to take back to our committee for next years Test which, I am sure, will be just as good and just as much fun.

      I would just like to add a personal "thank you" to the committee for inviting us and sponsoring us, to Sandy for continuing through the last Test while being hit with a  migraine, to Mandy who s dog she was expecting to run went lame so she came with her younger , less experienced 

( & very beautiful)  dog and to Erica ho came all the way from North of Inverness.

Next year will be nearer for all of them !!

  Judy Lunt.

1.   Golden Retriever Club

2.   Eastern Counties GRC

3.   Northern Golden Retriever Association

4.   South Western Golden Retriever Club

5.   Berkshire Downs & Chilterns GRC.

6.   Golden Retriever Club of Wales.