Bala Newfoundland Water & Draught Tests - May 2010
A pleasant Wednesday evening we arrived at the Tytandderwen site as the sun was setting over the Welsh mountains for our 3 day event at Bala in North Wales.
Bright and early Thursday morning we were joined by the lovely Johnson family, the Lockhart's, Rachel Gaines, The Tate/Hall mob and KR Junior and Alison. T bone steaks were the order of the day from the Roberts Butchers in Bala town. The next couple of days saw the site go from being completely empty to packed full. It was hard to believe that there were 50 Newfoundland's on site, along with a few other dogs, as the general mood was very peaceful and serene!
Friday afternoon saw the direction signs go out all over Bala the LRB Banners around the site, along with the 12m x 6m marquee in Taffy's back garden! As we had filled the main site up, this was the perfect location for our social gathering area - you never know when it's going to rain at Bala!
As Friday evening approached we had a fabulous dinner for everyone who had arrived, kindly organised by Rosemary & John, with HOT chilli, rice & pita's for dinner, everyone enjoyed the evening and it was chance for our new friends and members to get to know everyone a bit better ahead of the tests. Rosemary sold twice as many raffle tickets as anyone else would have done on the evening - Thank you Rosemary!
Saturday was upon us and the welsh drizzle showed its face. The Section E water tests were the first tests of the weekend, with 2 entries and sadly no passes. Section C followed with 5 entries and just one pass - WELL DONE RACHEL & CASPER! By 1.30pm the Section A (pre beginners) water tests were underway and Phil enjoyed his first water judging post with Ken Rhodes and 15 entrants. All but one team passed Section A - big congratulations to you all: Missy, Paddy TH, Paddy M, Murphy, Pluto, Troy, Gizmo, Sooty, Lilly, Digby, Crosby, Capri, Vera, Ruuti,
Saturday night was BBQ night and everyone got together to enjoy the lovely evening in he Marquee. Huge thanks must go to Mick and Les for working so hard to feed 40 people with the food supplied from the Butchers, along with all the equipment, we had another successful evening.
Sunday was draught day and the weather that would have been perfect for water turned up, meaning we had to ensure that the dogs who weren't working all had adequate shade.
For some bizarre reason it was felt that Tytandderwen wouldn't be suitable for a Level 4 draught test, so on this occasion we were limited to levels 1,2 & 3. Following the weekend its been confirmed by all the judges who attended that its more than suitable for a Level 4 test, which we hope to do in the future.
Level 3 had 7 entries and only 2 passes. 4 dogs went on to the haul and did exceptionally well but sat up during the down stays. Congratulations to the two teams that did make it through - Jude & Paddy and Les & Yogi.
Level 2 Draught also had 7 entries, with one withdrawal before the test started and one dog disappearing off into the sunset before the control section was completed (don't worry, no harm came to Troy Boy!) Of the remaining 5, we had 4 dogs on the Level 2 haul, all performing sufficient to pass. - Well done Jules & Missy, Phil & Henry, Darcy & Mocha Bear and Bettina & Ruuti.
Level 1 was going on in the meantime with a fantastic entry of 13 dogs - all but one passing. Congratulations to Sooty, Digby, Leila, Digby W, Murphy, Yogi, Jeli, Crosby, Ripple, Leila, Digby Y, Baxter,Vera & Ruuti
Fish & Chip supper was on the Menu this evening, with a few people opting for a Bala Chinese takeaway. A peaceful evening with a few tanned faces, everyone got an early night.
The last of the three days at Bala was back in the water with Section D followed by Section B. D had 5 entries, sadly no passes (some very close though!) After the D's we had a staggering 22 entries in Section B which went on until sunset! Of the 22 entrants, 12 passed, although some will need to work hard to progress further in the future as they couldn't afford to loose any more marks. It's great to see so many dogs taking part in the beginner's level and I hope they all progress in the future.
The last evening of the test we took advantage of the BBQ that hadn't been collected - thanks again Mick for feeding us all....After food the evening appeared to turn into a huge party which went on until the early hours, listening from my bed to Sarah & Peter singing Hotel California at some ungodly hour.....I think everyone had a great weekend....
Thanks to all the people who supported the event:
Our Judges: Rachel Gaines, Mick Reiley, Ann Kitson, Pete Lewin, Les Moulsdale, Jen Lewin, Jude Moulsdale, Phil Barber & Alison Nuttall
Our Stewards: A huge thank you to all our stewards for giving up your time to help make the event run successfully
Our Entrants: Thank you for supporting us and making the event such a wonderful atmosphere - we do hope that you enjoyed the event enough to come back next year!
Master Chefs: Alison & Cindy for the wonderful Chocolate Brownies & Banana Bread, and to Mick & Les for BBQs. Gill, Leanne & Sarah for feeding everyone during the day and Nat & Natalia for providing hot milky drinks to everyone over the weekend!
And finally, our Thunderbox Monitors: Gill & Sarah - star's of the weekend in dealing with the dreaded portaloo!
Please visit the gallery to see photos from the weekend
Jude Moulsdale
Lancashire Rescue Bears