The Wicklow & Wexford Gundog Assoc. held its Spring Open Stake for Pointers & Setters at Kippure in the Dublin Mountains on Sunday 20th March 2005. The judges were Joe Sullivan & Pat Rohan. The day was every bit as bright as the day before but the wind was constant at about force four and the thermometer struggled to reach 13C.
Results:-
1st New Addition. Tom Dunne’s E.S.D.
2nd Lisdovogue Mise Pat Reape’s I.S.B.
3rd Knock So So. Charlie Neilson’s P.D.
I don’t have the classifications for these awards.I didn’t see a lot of this trial. I was in the first brace and was excluded for missing game. With the wind so strong I was glad to see that there were a few bits of broken ground on my beat because that is where the game would be and it proved to be so. The running was good from my dog and he was handling well. We came to a cutting about four meters deep running across the line of our beat. Jump was at the extremity of his left hand cast and crossed the ravine. As he passed in front of me on the far bank two birds broke from the face of the ravine that was looking back at me, and as Jump was forward of them he had technically left them behind.Unlike Saturday when Jump was clearly at fault for taking too big a forward cast this time it was purely bad luck. On a calmer day he might have scented the birds from the near bank but there was probably so much disruption to the air flow in the high wind that it would have been an amazing find had he pulled it off. So I walked back down the mountain, ate my lunch and started the 135 mile return trip, home in time for afternoon tea.
