The Irish Pointer Club held it’s Summer Open Stake for A/V Setter & Pointers yesterday, 13th August 2005. The Trial was held on the Liffey Head and the judges were Tom Dunne, David Byrne & Pat McCarthy. The day started badly with drifting fog and rain showers, to such an extent that abandonment was considered, however the day improved and by the afternoon we had a consistent breeze, but from an akward angle, and cool conditions. 14C.
Awards:-
1st F.T.Ch. Glynlark Mary Kate Carol Calvert’s Red Setter Bitch
2nd Lagopus Xanthus. Jimmy Dalton’s Pointer dog
3rd Sugarloaf Bold. Des O’Neile’s Pointer dog.
All three graded excellent.
In foggy conditions bad work and good work are both missed in equal measure. But I can’t talk about what Ididn’t see. What I did see was dogs running. And running well. Every dog I saw ran , and to good effect. Initially the conditions were, to say the least, unhelpful, but I saw some good work. At the end of the first round there was one dog , Charlie Neilson’s Pointer dog Knock So So looking good. There was also sterling from one of Billy Grace’s English Setter and the ever present Ned Flannelley’s Red & Whites. I didn’t see Carol Calvert’s bitch, she was in the mist but I did see Jimmy Dalton’s find with Lagopus Xanthus, he had a workout of about 100 yards to produce a single grouse.
I made the cut due to a flat, very pacey hard hunting run, and was in the second round that started somewhere about 16:00.Charlie Neilson had a find on a covey of about five and was looking even more a winner. I had a good run against Jimmy Dalton’s Xanthus and in effect beat him to birds. I then had a tricky work out, involving several ” relocations “, of about 100 yards to produce a single half grown grouse. Although this looked like a running bird the grouse was only half grown and didn’t look capable of a long run and when it flushed from the heather it looked as if it had been tucked in. I have seen this kind of work read two ways. Some judges take the view the dog failed to pin the bird and mark him down , some take the view that the bird was running and give the dog a lot of extra credit for producing it. How would my judges see it on the day? Your guess was as good as mine.
There was an extension to the second round of one brace containing one of Billy Grace’s English Setters and Charlie Neilson’s Pointer. I don’t know what Billy’s dog had done but Charlie’s Dog still needed a bit of running to polish off his winning work. I was feeling a bit low at this stage because in my book ( not that my book mattered ) there were still six dogs in the hunt for top honours and if Charlie was going to win it I might be squeezed into a meaning less ( pointless ) fourth place. At least a third would give Jump a point towards his title. ( We needed two at this stage )
I like all the guys who I compete against, some more than others, but I genuinely like them all. Charlie Neilson I like in particular. For a start off he is currently running a Pointer, he has gone out of his way to be helpful, coming to get me in his jeep when I was miles away on the hill. If anybody was going to win other than me I would like it to be Charlie.
I have never been so embarrassed for anybody in my entire trialling life. The run lasted about five minutes and didn’t cover any more than about fifty yards. In that time his dog false pointed twice, pointed two larks, took a cut at one and eliminated itself from the stake. There but for the grace of God, go us all.
At this stage the trial was declared over.The fun wasn’t over, not by a long shot. We arrived back at the cars at about 19:00 and the awards weren’t declared till about 19:50. We could hear the “discussion” among the judges, from the van they were in. Blood Letting might be a better term. It was a like a conclave to elect the Pope. Eventually we got white smoke and the awards were as I stated above. But please look at the line below the awards,” All three graded Ecxellent” These words are crucial, to me at least. A third excellent gets two points or green stars. If the work had been down graded to even ” Very Good ” it would have only been worth one. So even though I have an i to dot(bench qualification) and a t to cross ( I.K.C. Ratification) this gives Jump enough points to be declared an Irish Field Trial Champion. So obviously the judges had not liked Jump’s production but to misquote a famous line, ” Frankly Charlotte, I don’t give a damm ” Irish Field Trial Champion Sugarloaf Bold, sure sounds good to me.Jump has won trials with work vastly substandard to this, the grading of Excellent nearly confirms it, but every dog has his day. Jump has had four, and this is the result. I have no tripe defrosted tonight, but I will tomorrow, and he can have a belly full.
