Roi,F.T.Ch.Prince of Darkness. Pointer Dog.

Sometimes you just strike it lucky and when Roi fell out of Ombra into my hand in the garage one bright Wednesday morning I hit pay dirt. There were only four pups but I had already decided to keep the first one and you could tell Roi from the even white socks on all four feet. My first, of many errors, was to agree to sell the black bitch pup that I had called Cher. I really should have kept her. Marino took the black and white bitch as his stud fee. He made a cock up here as well as he could have had Cher. The other black dog had been sold unborn, Ombra was going to have a dozen, after all.
It took a while for the swan you see above to appear from what turned into a gangly big pup, with feet, legs and elbows all over the place. But then it started to come together. I was on Black Mountain one summer evening and I met Billy Hosick with his usual herd of setters. At one stage Roi was running with a group of setters and he came on point first, by quite a bit. Billy’s dogs then all piled in round Roi and a small covey of grouse erupted from the heather. It was his first find on Irish soil and an indication of what was to come. Roi obviously had a talent but it was no accident that he became so proficient. He had several sojourns in the grouse capital of the world, Yorkshire. Maybe three or four months at a time.
In his second full season it started to come together and he won the N.I.Pointer Club’s Novice at Slieveanorra with a terrific find at the top corner of the wood. He had a few minor awards in opens as well but 1994 was a total blank. He would have been lucky to find his way home let alone a grouse. What made Roi was the trip to England in the Summer of 1995. He had work and grouse nearly every day and it made a big difference. By 1998 he had done enough to be a U.K. F.T.Ch and he had his points and show qualification in the South as well.
There were two things that I felt very proud of Roi for over and above being made up. He is the only dog to date to win both the N.I.Pointer Club’s breed stake and the Irish Pointer Club’s breed stake in the same year.

        I can therefore say with no little pride that offically he was the Best Pointer in Ireland in 1998. Then there was the 17th August 2000. The Balmoral Event. This was a true team effort. If any dog had dropped 15 points it would have been a draw. For some reason it seems to be generally accepted that Roi’s work in the second round sealed the victory. Just below the rocks on Lough Nagar Roi had two finds. One a double covey. Each time a gun indicated readiness I clicked my fingers and Roi would produce another bird. The first batch were retrieved and he then produced another six or seven, from the same point, in ones and twos. I haven’t seen anything like it before or since.
There are and were many good if not great dogs in Ireland. Even some of the best never get their fifteen miutes of fame. Roi certainly had his full quarter hour. This was a backhanded compliment but it sort of sums it up quite well.
A well known trialler was regailing us with the fact that his dog now only needed one more point to be made up. He finished by saying that he could do with a win. On seeing me he said,
” Good morning Mr O’Neile. I hope you haven’t got that Black Bastard with you today.”

Click here for Roi’s Pedigree.