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The weather continued to be unkind and it was now time for the Tug-of-War. The crowd was enticed to take part and eventually a good number of people were assembled. An extremely stout rope was stretched out, the various teams, some all male, some all female, some mixed sex, in turn took their place and the battle commenced. I was with a number of American visitors who had never seen anything like it and thought those taking part were either very brave or mad. The rain had made the grass extremely slippery and many of the pullers were finding it difficult to get a foothold.





To the various cries of heave or pull, one by one, the teams were eliminated collapsing on the grass amid great laughter until one team reigned supreme. A number of people had rope burns and bruised arms and I'm sure osteopaths would be doing a roaring trade the following week as participants went to have their various joints attended to. I was sceptical about the previous two events being suitable to take place in the grounds of Lord Tweedmouth's former home, albeit now a ruin. However, I think he would have approved as he enjoyed entertaining and was a great party-goer. In another area, a scurry was run by Maggie and Mick Paul, very popular with both working and show-bred goldens taking part. Some people think that show bred dogs are not as fast as their working cousins but they do retrieve and today showed that Lord T's aim of a good pickup is still instinctive in the breed.




The weather fortunately appeared to be improving which was just as well as a momentous photographic occasion was about to take place. I think Lord T was sitting next to the weather man and said, "These good people are having a really good time, it would be wonderful if the rain stopped" and by some miracle it did.



At Guisachan in 2001, over 30 goldens had been photographed, sitting together without handlers and here was an opportunity to break this record and the one held by Australia. Lynn Kipps, Canine Photographer extraordinaire, climbed on to the roof of a car and she and Jim proceeded to call everyone together- what a difficult task. Some dogs' leads were staked using tenting pegs, others just sat totally bemused and a few barked as their owners left them. For one brief moment all appeared quiet and this historical picture was taken, a wonderful testament to the breed standard about temperament, kindly, friendly and confident. How these words rang true, it brought a lump to my throat seeing so many goldens, of all colours allowed in the standard, behaving impeccably. Another photo call, this time with handlers and spectators included. Jim then called for a Grand Old Duke of York formation and the dogs and handlers walked between the two rows of spectators to be counted. Although 171 went through, there were in fact 188 dogs present.



The afternoon had been a huge success. Jim called forward Barbara Moore, who gracefully conceded that the Guisachan Gathering final count had overtaken the Australian golden retriever record of 150 plus dogs in one photographic sitting. By now, Jim was in danger of losing his voice, but he was just able to thank everyone for participating.

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