The English Setter Club of Ireland held it’s Open Stake on grouse in the Dublin Mountains on Sunday 5th August 2007. This was a momentous day because on the card were eight Irish Setters handled by their owners, who had travelled from France to take in a few events in Ireland. The judges were Christy Davitt and Fr. Seamus O’Neill. The rain was falling for most of the morning but it was the fog that caused the most concern but things eventually got underway about 10:30. I reckon only the far travelled visitors swayed the balance and let this event go ahead. Normally it would have been called off. We started of at the eastern end of the Liffey Head.
Result :-
1st Oxspring Roxanne Tony Kieran’s Pointer bitch Handler Des O’Neile (Grade Very Good)
2nd Darnish Starbright Pat Dooley’s Pointer bitch (Grade Very Good)
Best French Dog. Ulster des Sorcieres du Sancy Mr L Gay’s Irish Setter bitch.
Roxy.
I was first up with Roxy and as I cast off into horizontal rain I remember saying to my self ” What dog could point grouse in this”. The answer was Roxy. After a few good cuts she drew forward and pointed on the right hand side of the beat. At this time out bracemate came on point on the left. He had a single from the split covey and Roxy had the other five. She had the birds well pinned and struck a most stylish point. This was at about 10:30. Her run off was just before 18:00. She did her ground nicely but it was heavy footing and she appeared to lack a little drive but the quartering was good.
Judy
Judy was in the second brace. Lightening struck twice and out bracemate had a find on a pair in the middle of the beat. I had insisted on Judy doing her ground and probably robbed her of the chance of a find and it was construed that the birds were there for her as well so she was out.
Jalad.
Jalad looks like he is running on his bracemate sometimes but more often than not when his opponent turns he continues on his own mission. He really beat his ground and I was delighted with his turn of pace. When dogs are covering a beat of two hundred metres it is quite often the case that even though the wind is head on at the handler it is a bit of a cheek wind out by the dog. This can sometimes result in an irregular pattern. We were running along a shoulder with the ground disappearing over the skyline within a hundred yards on the right but sloping away to a flat bog on the left. The wind was coming at a slight angle from the left meaning that the dogs ran forward slightly on the right and back slightly on the left. For the first time that I can remember Jalad started to turn back on the left and come up behind the gallery. I would say he was excluded for persistent back casting.
The real winner.
Sometimes you see a dog in action that takes your breath away. Capparoe Jip, Billy Grace’s English Setter bitch is such a dog. Fast, really fast, flat, really flat, and what drive. What she didn’t get was a chance at a bird and what a worthy winner she would have made.
Les Francaise.
Lean racy dogs a tad taller than ours. All very much of a type looking as if from the same litter. They had never run on heather before though it didn’t look like that. They all were fast but their gait was such that thay didn’t look to be running that hard. None of them had a chance at game but I would be surprised if they all couldn’t handle game with ease. Those that had the opportunity to back, backed naturally. The French want their dogs to quarter but the real goal is to find a bird. They don’t seem to put much value on flat quartering and even by Irish standards they end up too far forward. A very interesting experience.
In the run off the three dogs (Pointers) with finds were run against other dogs.
