The above club held it’s autumn open stake on the hills overlooking Moorlough Co.Tyrone. The event was run under Kennel Club Field Trial Rules & Regulations and was the inaugural event for Michael Houston the club’s new Hon. Secretary. Judges for the day were the outgoing Hon. Secretary of ten years standing Charlie Neeson and your humble scribe, Des O’Neile.
This had all the ingredients of another cracking trial and that is exactly what we got. It was undoubtedly the best event I have been involved with in the last six or seven years and I am only bitterly sorry that I was judging and not competing. The weather was dry, bright and sunny but not too warm. The breeze was from approximately the same direction all day. The birds were well feathered and flew exceptionally well with the exception of one which might have been a bird that had had it’s tail feathers removed by an over zealous setter earlier on.
We ran in total about twenty brace of dogs and there were only two dry runs. The first round ( nearly all the work ended up on my side ) saw a display of bird work the like of which I haven’t seen for some time. Jim Sheridan’s Red & White bitch Craigrua Lucky had a find and worked forward to a point where we could see the cock pheasant at the bottom of a narrow drain. Not much wider than the bird and only a couple of feet in front of her. Even more importantly the bird was a full three feet below the level of the dog’s head. Amazingly the dog entered the drain and produced the pheasant and was steady. Even more amazingly and disappointingly the same dog was unsteady to another pheasant in the second round and was eliminated.
Awards :-
1st Paardeberg Pretoria Ian Withy’s Pointer dog.
2nd F.T.Ch Daire Rose Blessing in Disguise Des Linton’s R&W Setter Dog
3rd Ir.F.T.Ch. Craigrua Osprey Des Linton’s R&W Setter Dog.
4th F.T.Ch. Koram Glen John McCauley’s Pointer Dog handled by Michael Houston.
The winning dog is a big strong, hard running, but easily handled dog that had an exceptionally clean run in both rounds and made the find and production of a tricky running pheasant seem common place.
