West Country Gundogs

WOW!

Another year, two more great days beside the lake at Bowood!

Smiley faces is what we aim for and there were lots of those!

We moved the marquees to a different position this year to improve the visibility of the tests for onlookers, this worked well to involve everyone who visited our site at the Wiltshire Show.

Competitors

Congratulations to all our winners.  Trophies were carried off by happy retriever and spaniel handlers in both seniors and juniors.

A huge number of retrievers and spaniels ran in the tests along with their sometimes confident or sometimes nervous handlers of all ages and stages.  We hope everybody went away from the tests no longer nervous and the better for the experience; that’s our aim, we trust you did!

Thanks for taking part and being such good sports.  Great to see so many juniors entering and how accomplished and confident they were!

Thank you to our indefatigable judges

The Two Martins - Martin Harris and Martin Love aka M & M Gundogs

We like to keep our judges fit!  As well as judging, dispensing advice and being the usual enthusiastic types that they are, they contributed so much to the spirit of the day.  They got a bit fitter too after walking up and down that slope about 150 times over the weekend!

It’s not everyone who would commit to 2 solid days on their feet so cheerfully judging or sometimes coaching where entrants asked for a mini lesson rather than a test run – thank you chaps, you are stars.

Volunteer helpers

What a smooth well-oiled operation you made it.

THANK YOU – too many to mention by name – old friends and new friends; your wholehearted contributions make possible the setting up (a magnificent job done is very short order), running the administration for 2 days (no mean feat of patience and endurance), catering, stewarding, dummy throwing and assisting the judges.

You give so much to make a great day for the test competitors and represent the gundog community with such positivity at the Wiltshire Show.

We say a fond farewell to Vernon as he moves away to the deepest south west.  A man of the Cloth, we shall miss his devotion to duty and patrician style that brought a little something to proceedings.

Sponsors

Skinners Pet Foods sponsors our prizes - thanks to Skinners for your support.