Date: 12/09/09 |
My thanks to Kim for asking me to go with her to the Dutch Championships, and to Peter and the society for their normal superb hospitality (Trudi said I had to say that!). We had a good trip over, and I’m sure Dave was joking when he said Mary was glad she had her own room because I never shut up talking… We were met at the airport by Karin, who must have wanted to sleep for a week by the time she’d dropped us at the airport Monday morning (thankfully she was only half kidding about shoving us out the car without stopping!). I did think Kim was pulling my leg Sunday night when she said we had to get up at 5.30am Monday morning to catch our flight (9.35am), although it did mean that I was a little less chatty than I’d been on the Friday! Just how we arrived at 7.50am, checked in, had a coffee, before we realised it was getting dangerously close to 9.30am I have no idea! We ran to the Gate, to be met with a queue of people waiting to go through the bag checks….taking the advice of the man in front we ran to the front of the queue and pushed in! Unfortunately the beautiful glass trophies given to us obviously showed up as suspicious on in the x-ray and our bags were pulled to one side!! It woud have been comical watching us run for the plane – Dave was first to run down the corridor (the Gate just HAD to be the last one!), with me trying to follow. Kim was in a poor 3rd position with her rickety knees (my shouts of ‘Come on Mum’ seemed to cheer her though) with Mary bringing up the rear (customs definitely took a liking to her bag!). I think we made the plane with about a whole MINUTE to spare!
Beginners – many thanks to my steward, Stefan, and to Monique on score board.
1st: Renate Steinfort with Takoda of Shinji’s Star (GSD).
A fabulous dog with bags of potential to go straight up through the classes. Beautiful heelwork position, with stacks of attitude. Lost 4 on the round, 2 ½ of which was for handler errors. Best of luck in the future.
2nd: Nel de Groene with Arno (Lab).
This dog smiled throughout the whole test, taking everything in his stride. You are doing a good job, keep enjoying him.
3rd: Hinke v.d. Ploeg with Dutchfield’s McKim (BC).
A handler with 2 dogs in the line-up, both with bags of potential. Both dogs producing flashes of brilliant work, then slight lapses of concentration, due to immaturity and experience, cost some marks. Very well done.
4th: Marian de Jong with Hot Chili’s Yippee-a-yee (Aussie).
Another lovely dog, with some wide working being costly. But another round to
be proud of.
5th: Jobien Steijn with Karden’s Destiny Duc (Zwitserse Witte herder).
Lovely heelwork from this dog, and could have been contending for 1st or 2nd place, until retrieve where a loss of 3 points was too much. Best of luck.
6th: Inge de Graauw with Thimba (Kruising).
Made a good account of themselves in the heelwork, just some wide working to improve on. Some marks lost on the recall and retrieve adding up, but worthy of being higher in the places in future. Good luck.
7th: Hinke v.d. Ploeg with Dutchfield’s RhaqKep (BC).
A super collie who could easily progress up the classes in the future. Heelwork was lovely to watch and put them in contention to win, but 2 ¾ lost on the recall and retrieve put them at this end of the line-up. Winner of my ‘most promising’ dog, I wish you success with her.
Class B – many thanks to Guus for stewarding, Mary for scribing and my scoreboard:
1st: Helen Braak with Quiet-Kuma The Lovely White Shepherd (GSD), lost 7 ½.
A super team who thoroughly enjoy working together. A dog that appears quiet outside the ring, but lights up when being worked. A well deserved win, of which I expect many more to come your way!
2nd: Henk Eekman with Borders for Joy Freedom of Faith (BC).
Little to choose between this dog and the winner, with just a ¼ point difference in heelwork. In fact the 1 ½ lost for deviation on the sendaway cost you joint first. A super dog, very best of luck in the future.
3rd: Greet Vink with Kyrill v. Berlaere (BC).
Again a lovely round, just some position work required in heelwork. Best of luck.
4th: Gino Dewitte with My Sweet Devil’s Eye Encke (BC).
Love heelwork, on par with the winner today but a loss of 3 ¾ in retrieve proving too costly. Good luck.
5th: Bianca v.d. Post with Nice of you to come bye-eager Wizard (BC).
Best heelwork of the day (losing 5 points) but then lost 2 ¼ on sendaway and 5 in the down stay! Your day will certainly come though.
6th: Henneke Heidenveld with Kiss of Magic Kayoe (GSD).
Beautiful heelwork in normal and fast, but slow pace needing a little work. Losing 3 on sendaway and 3 ¾ on retrieve was too much to make up for. A dog who should make his presence felt in C.
7th: Joke v.d. Hoop Ngali of the Two Chestnuts (Kelpie).
Just bits and pieces adding up today, with some work needed on the heelwork position. But overall a very good round (although I still want to take Sleepy home with me!).
B rounds worthy of a mention were, Anneke Hollemans with Quebey's Boy Twice van Benvenida's Joy, Nicky Spengler with her 2 Shelties, both dogs give parts in heelwork of being super, then momentarily lose the intensity, which is a shame. Anne de Haan with Judy’s Judy Shepherd’s Dream (BC), I know you thought she was a little too noisy and wanted to compete in the A, but really with about 2 stretches of heelwork to go you REALLY SHOULD HAVE KEPT GOING!! Lovely bitch.
We had a lovely weekend, despite me having to keep asking the barman for coffee with baby milk!! The hotel was lovely, my room so big I could have stayed in bed and judged the B round in it!
I would like to wish Karin Stegmeijer’s dear little Hoagy (Cavalier) a long and happy retirement, and my thanks to Ed Vink, the Chief Stay Steward. Finally my congratulations to Guus and Gio on the winning the Championships on the Sunday.
Michelle Newman