Hosted by the Golden Retriever Club of Soctland

  The Golden Retriever Club of Scotland hosted the 2009 Inter-club working test with 12 clubs sending teams.

  This was the first time we had been in scotland for this annual event. As a prelude to the main event, Pat and Don Robertson had orgainised an unclassifield individual test at nearby Auchenbreck on Saturday. A good many golden handlers joined in this sociable and worthwhile start to the weekend. There were Novice and Open sections, and the Novice winner was our very own Anne Crookes handling Brisk.

  Of course the main event was the team test on Sunday. We were not disapointed with the scenic nature of the ground at Drumlanrig Castle, nor with the hospitality of the host club. The venue was parkland bordering the river Nith, with scattered woods on rolling land with the castle at the top of the hill. The ground was used by kind permission of the Duke of Buccleugh.

  The six judges were; Billy Steel senior, Billy Steel junior, Dave Lisset, Mervyn Philpott, Lynn Ryan and Joe Maclure. Four of the tests were done in pairs, with one novice dog and one open dog. The test at the river was done singly. The walk up was done with four dogs of a team in line. The tests were all good natural exercises involving marking and handling at distance, facing cover, crossing water and jumping. On this occassion there was no team work involved. On our circuit we followed Scotland, but, where the water caused a bottleneck we had an opportunity to talk to most of the other teams.

  The Northern Golden Retriever Association team consisted of:
OPEN 1. MOSCARGRANGE BLADE handled by Steve Crookes.
OPEN2. MOSCARGRANGE BARLEY OF PEBBLETOFT handled by Phil Wagland.
NOVICE 1. MOSCARGRANGE BRISK handled by Anne Crookes.
NOVICE 2. LEERAMBLER DIAMOND STAR handled by Pam Illingworth.

(L to R)
Pam and Leerambler Diamond Star, Phil and Moscargrange Barley of Pebbletoft, Steve and Moscargrange Blade, Anne and Moscargrange Brisk.

We completed all the test without the failures that some teams had, but our scores were not high enough to put us in contention, 440 pts, earning us 9th place.
Results
1st Golden Retriever Club with 480 pts (Fiona Baird, Richard Ashdown, Trevor Souster and Kurt Becksteiner) winning the Pinecrest Trophy.
2nd Golden Retriever Club Of Wales with 475 points.
3rd  North West Golden Retriever Club with 472 points.
4th Berkshire Downs and Chilterns Golden Retriever Club with 467 points.

BEST OPEN: Richard Ashdown's FT CH MISTYBROOK CONNOR winning the pebbletoft tankard.
BEST NOVICE: Kirsty Cousins' GORTONS RED RUBY RASCAL winning the eastern counties tankard and also the Northern Cup for the highest overall score.

Report compiled by Phil Wagland

Copyright 2009-2011 Northern Golden Retriever Association