retrievers

GUNDOG INTERNATIONAL THE GAME FAIR 2022
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GUNDOG INTERNATIONAL THE GAME FAIR 2022

First place – Ireland with 903 points

Second place– England with 886 points

Third place – Wales with 854 points

Fourth place – Scotland with 850 points

A big thank you to the Game Fair, Barbara Kuen, Francesca Prentice, Lisa Harris and Mark Clifford, the four judges that did a great job over the two days, and not to forget the great arena crew who were perfect throughout the duration of the competition.

This year’s course, probably the best Game Fair course for a long time, was challenging. 

A huge thank you to Ceri and Phil of CSJ, our main sponsors. Without their continued support it would be impossible to compete at this level.

Wales consolidated their third place overall at International level after some fierce competition over the two days. 

Top spaniels were Scotland with 480 points, second England with 470 points, Third Wales with 458 points and Ireland with 451. The Welsh team, after numerous late changes did remarkably well. Roger Woolridge with 91, Dewi Williams with 88, were first timers on the team, taking on a very difficult Spaniel course. Rhys Carpenter, came in late, scoring a creditable 93, but is was a delight to see Steve Erasmus ( Raz) coming up with  a score of 99, he was a joy to watch. A huge thank you must go to Aled Jones, who leads and works so hard with the spaniels returning a score of 87. Thanks must go to Julie Thatcher, our reserve, for her great support over the weekend.Well done all.

Top Retrievers were Ireland with 452 points, after a fantastic performance, second England with 416 points, third were Wales with 396 points and then Scotland with 370 points. There was a change in the format of this year’s Retriever competition with all Retrievers running on both days, having a total of 10 retrieves per Retriever. The course for the Retrievers clearly showed how difficult it was with 12 failures over the course of the two days, this was tough going. Nigel Probert with Angus returning a score of 90, Alan Rees with Magnum on 89, Nigel again, with Tom on 85, Mike Jones with Buzz on 67 and David Christmas Thomas with Martha, new on the team, scoring 65. There was a tie for top Retriever between Steve Richardson of England and John Dawson of Ireland , both on a score of 98.

A big thank you to our reserve Wendy Glue for her contribution over the weekend.

In closing I would like to thank all 16 spaniels that tried out for the team this year plus the 20 Retrievers that also tried out. Thank you to all the helpers, dummy throwers and the team members that have travelled so far to practice and compete. 

Once again a huge thank you to Ceri & Phil and all at CSJ. Your 15 years of loyal support is well appreciated.

Diolch yn Fawr

Alan Rees

Captain of the Wales Team

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Retriever World Cup 2019 report from Alan Rees

Wales Team Alan Rees 2019.jpg

Well this year was the first time the Retriever World Cup has come to Wales.

The outstanding picturesque estate at Glan Usk was the venue overlooking some of the most outstanding landscape in Wales.

Nigel Probert, the course designer had done a fantastic job with very challenging long retrieves on Llangynidr moor on the first day. He used the full location of the estate and river Usk for the technical retrieves on the second day. What an excellent job.

At the gala dinner on Saturday night, teams from all over Europe were entertained in the land of song by the Bois Goitre Wen Male voice choir. That was an event in itself.

Now onto the event

The ever consistent Scotland, winners for the second time in succession. England came a very close second and Denmark in third.

Wales trailed this year in 9th place, a big disappointment but things just didn’t go well for the home team. At the end of the first day Welsh dogs were prominent with Vickie Stanley leading the field closely followed by Alan Rees and Hayden Willmott. Mike Jones found things a little difficult for his young dog.

The second day followed much the same pattern with failures for Mike, Hayden and Vickie but on a course like this there were numerous bunkers to be overcome.

Hopefully we all have learnt from the experience and will benefit from it in future events.

A big thank you from the team, we all appreciated the support from numerous gundog people that had turned out to support us as well as some of the best dogs and handlers in the world.

On behalf of the team I would like to thank Ceri, Phil and all at CSJ for their continued support.

Diolch,

Alan Rees

Wales Team Captain