Utility Gundog Society Area finals
Castle Goring, Worthing, West Sussex
By kind permission of Mr Fitzroy Somerset
Judges: Mr Tony Turner and Mr Keith Broomfield
1st: UGS Surrey, West Sussex & Hants
Ian Ford, Shirley Carew, Wendy Harrison & Diana Stevens
2nd: UGS Kent & East Sussex
Graham Home, Rueben Corbett, Robert Willatts & Sarah Clark
3rd: UGS Herts, Beds & Bucks
Peter Childs, John Keegan, Jim Gale & Jim Collins
4th: UGS Eastern Counties
Tom Lowe, Vince Mitchell, Liz Ingram & (Mike?) Elsey
Top Scoring Dog:
1st: Liz Ingram – Garrethall Myrhh
FT CH Brindlebay Jude x Gillygaben Tara – 109 Points
2nd: Diana Stevens – Bedgebrook Never Say Never to Wylanbriar
FT CH Bedgebrook Excalibur x Mansengreen Hobby of Bedgebrook – 107 Points
3rd: Graham Home – Roundcopse Thistle of Ripplecourt
FT CH Dipplelodge Raven of Riversway x Wendarose Nickel of Roundcopse – 101 Points.
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WELL! What a day! Beautiful sunshine and roll out of bed, drive ten minutes and be at the (stunning!) ground. I’ve never competed there before myself, but will look forward to doing so again, it is truely stunning with the ‘castle’ as a backdrop.
For those who don’t know, teams of four, picked based on winning or being placed in that UGS branch Open test earlier this Spring.
Was thrilled to be asked to run. Was pretty nervous as the company at these tests is of the top level and you always question if you are kidding yourself by trying to fight with the best! To say i’m proud and pleased to both win the team competition with my fantastic teammates and be second highest scoring dog is an understatement! This was both my and Bondys first Open team event of this prestige.
The tests are kind of what they call ‘finals open tests’ So tend to be stronger than your average Open tests, just another reason to have sleepless nights building up to it! I should of trusted my ‘little blondie bombshell’ as he seems to have been christened 
Test 1 (as the tests were numbered not in the order we did them):
4 dog walk up. The team goes forward to the judge as a four and we all walk up together. Numbers 1 and 3 had a mark infront at about 150 yards into a shaded area. Numbers 2 and 4 had blinds, one at a 45 degree angle about 150 yards total down to a pheasant pen and then alongside it, and one at a very difficult angle almost directly towards the mark. Then when complete, we swapped and 2 and 4 had the mark into the shade, and 1 and 3 had blinds in different places. The key was to help one another, shifting about to give them the best view of the very tricky mark, or to get their dog out and clearly able to see them for the blinds… Some bad luck for Ian and saw his dog hit the wind of one of the blinds on the way to the mark and unfortunately pick it….he was NOT alone in this we later found out. All other retrieves completely successfully.
Test 2:
A mark with shot into a small lake infront and to the right. THEN a bolting rabbit was pulled across the track on the far side of the lake, being given a couple of barrells by the gun as it went… (It got away every time, amazing eh?!! ;-0 ) The rabbit was pulled straight over the track the dogs would need to be sent down, and into a wood on the left of the track. A few dog’s ears nearly fell off watching it go! LUCKILY Bondy was sat staring, almost drooling at the mark on the water and I don’t think clocked the bunny at all – which was handy!!! So you had to send the dog for a blind first, about 150 yards into an open field, down the track that the bolting rabbit had just run over at the side of the lake. Then pick the mark on the water as a memory.
We all did this well.
Test 3: A blind with no shot, across a very large lake on the diagnonal ideally. We were sent from one corner and the blind was in some cover on the opposite diagonal corner of what was a sort of rectangle lake. Distance from sending point to ‘pick’ was about 100 yards I suppose. Plenty of bunkers including a flock of geese begging to be charged through, and a large wood just behind the dogs as they got out the water to be ‘enjoyed’ Ian Ford did this amazingly. watching him through the trees we all thought he hadn’t even been sent yet till we saw he didn’t have a dog by his side! One ‘Get over’ and Special did the lot on the perfect line! Magic! Bondy did good, slightly squaring off to take a less strenuious route across the lake, but coming out, and taking one handle to push him along to the area, then picked and took the direct line back across the water with no fuss.
Test 4:
OMG. Basically. I never even thought gundog minds could come up with such devilishment OK, we were positioned on a track round a large lake. Infront about 180 yards and up a hill AND behind a large tree, a shot was fired and a mark thrown. The mark was viewed for about 2 – 3 seconds if that before falling into long grass next to the tree. OK, bunker ONE….. the lake had quite high bracken around it and dropped away steeply INTO it, so the dogs had no idea that it was a lake. SO although the obvious route for the HANDLER was down the side of the lake, round the end of it and then up the hill, the DOGS didn’t know that and so, for those (including mine!) who have been working hard on them taking a direct line to a mark, we punched them out on their name and they charged to the corner of the lake as if to take a massive swim across. Well that would of been OK except for two things.. ONE they would have gone out of sight for AGES because of the bracken and the steep bank in… and TWO we had been told that a distraction mark was going to be thrown on the water after a few seconds (basically when the dog was level with it running down the side of the lake to try and pull them into the water….) evil! So many dogs required handling round the lake, and there were many little areas where they could vanish in a split second and be on that water, picking that distraction before you could *say* ‘Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!’
Anyway on the whole it went well for us. Bondy did go to take the ‘across the lake’ line, but that was my fault for not thinking about it first and sending him down my arm…being a mark and him clearly locked on the distant mark AND the distraction not being out yet, I just banged him out on his name so he took his own line which he thought was direct, so having to be handled…..
Then after picking the ‘up the hill mark’ you had to send them into the lake out of sight for quite some time to pick the distraction on the water. I just stood with my fingers crossed having no idea how clear the view was on the water as we couldn’t see, but then the judge put his arm up and I uncrossed my legs and fingers
Test 5:
A blind with no shot, about 180 yards down a grassy field, into an area of long grass and rough stuff, with woods to the left and right of it sitting there temptingly We all did nicely on that and Bondy ran it in a uncomplicated way. Couple of extra handles than I would of ideally liked not to have used, but I think the young lad was getting a bit tired by then having been snoring about 5 mins before with his head on my foot waiting his turn
So a lovely day, some really interesting and complex tests, and a real learning experience for me but one I’m really proud of. Our team were fab and it was a day of hot sunshine and loas and loads of laughing and jesting about in between the very serious tests! Thanks to all the organisers…. Ian! We won! We really won! Huge congrats also to Liz!
PS: I am very sorry I dropped the beautiful cup and caused it rather a lot of harm. I shall be mending it postehaste Bondy now has a lifelong ‘cups’ phobia and promises me never to win anything ever again
