Roade Village Hall, Northants - Sunday 22nd May 2011
Well, we survived what was certainly the windiest club event I
think I have ever been involved in. In over 25 years of club events I have never
seen the agility items blown over like they were today. I think a few
windbreaks, gazeboes, flagpoles and tents were tested to their limits and beyond with some items becoming
casualties, including the club's bell stand now needing repair, but nothing too serious to my knowledge and as you can see from the
photo people kept smiling.
Looking on the bright side the wind kept blowing the rain away every time it threatened and I think a good day was had by all. Even with the PA system it was difficult to hear some announcements due to the noise of the wind, (actually it was difficult to make some of the announcements due to the wind!), but everyone seemed to adjust and the classes were really well attended. I think we had some record numbers in some of them so thank you to everyone who came and contributed to our special Bernese day either by watching and adding to the atmosphere or especially by entering events and being an active part of it.
From a personal point of view I would like to thank the people who packed away the carting and agility equipment, at the end of a very long week-end any help clearing away is appreciated and a packed up trailer was an extremely welcome sight as I walked back across the field very late on in the day.
Either scroll up and down the whole page or use these links to jump to different sections
Pre Garden Party Party
Main Ring Events
Working Cart Course
Obedience
Overall Winner
Feedback
SATURDAY AND SATURDAY EVENING PRE-GARDEN PARTY PARTY
I have been asked to point out the contrast between the well laid out area mostly occupied by the carter's and the "New Age Travellers" look of the area mostly occupied by your committee!! Always happy to oblige but in our defence we were arranged in preparation for the Party
There was certainly a record number of people choosing to camp and make a week-end of the event. This gave them a free relaxing day on Saturday with some choosing to take the chance for free practice on the carting or agility. The day culminated in the evening's Pre Garden Party-Party. Thank you to every one who helped make this event a success in its own right, someone said to me we didn't need to have the Garden Party the next day because the Saturday was worth coming for on its own!
Well, not sure about that but it certainly seemed to go well and huge thanks have to go to Jeanette for the excellent catering with the planning, shopping and worry that goes with it. Catering for over a hundred out of a caravan isn't easy and we couldn't have done it without the help and hard work of several people. Dave and Judi Hardy and Debbie Gay deserve special thanks for giving up large parts of their day setting up and working at this event and David Kirk and Julie Wright for loan of the barbeque, complete with David as chief sausage cook, and Tom and Wendy Murray for loan of their barbeque. Lianne was also busying around and has to be thanked for all the photos you can see (if anyone wants to send any more in I'll gladly post them).
The strolling minstrels, Double D, added their contribution to the evening and the lyrics sheets to accompany the food didn't seem to cause anyone too many arguments, especially those that realised about half the songs were played during the meal!! The quiz proper seemed to be well received (most of it anyway!), although some people do need to learn you can't argue with a man with the microphone, he's just bound to be right all the time - especially when its me!! Judging by the amount of bottles we cleared away in the morning the event was just an excuse for another form of enjoyment for quite a few people. Suffice to say the bottle bank put on a few pounds weight on Sunday morning!!
Seriously thank you for all the positive feedback from this evening, it does make the hard work worthwhile.
Back to the Garden Party proper on Sunday and it was especially pleasing to see so many entries in the Rescue Parade just before lunch. This is our chance to show appreciation to all those who Rescue dogs, as was said in the commentary no matter how much money we raise, or how much good work is done by Sandra and her colleagues without people willing to give a home to a Rescue dog there would be no Rescue, end of story. So as always its a massive thank you from the breed to everyone who takes a Rescue dog into their lives and a special thank you to those who brought a dog and his or her story to share with the Garden Party audience. The Rescue parade has become a real highlight of the day and regularly draws the biggest crowd to the Main Ring.
The fantastically well supported Rescue Parade - although a few of the dogs were a bit camera shy
Straight after lunch we restarted events with the Golden Oldies Parade and again this was a brilliantly supported class with 20 dogs coming into the ring. In a breed with something of a longevity problem its good to have a reminder that things aren't always as bad as they are sometimes painted.
The wonderful Golden Oldies Parade (some of the dogs are getting on a bit as well!) - easily the best behaved photography subjects of the day!
Thank you to everyone who entered both of these parades and gave us all such a lift. We hope to see you all again next year or better still even before that when we will be repeating the Parades on our Sunday event at the Jubilee Week-end so please come along and support them or just enjoy watching these encouraging and, it has to be said at times emotional, parades.
EVENT 1 - The morning started as usual with the Decorated carts, Any Theme and the imaginations of some were well illustrated as you can see from the photos. Mark Avery was this year's judge with the unenviable job of sorting them out. The only sadness I always feel about the first classes of the day is that so many miss out on seeing them as people are still arriving for quite a while into the morning.
Belle - with a topical up to date entry.
Elaine - practising for the GB fortieth event ........ or just leftovers from the wedding?
Reg and Jackie - trying to look cool by pretending they're not cold!
Debbie - at least Debbie was sort of dressed for the conditions - although the wind was threatening to give her the quickest shave in history!!
Julie - tries to intimidate the judge!!
Linda - some people just can't take their UGG boots off!
Julie Wright and Hudson
Mark's winner, (probably because he was worried what she was going to do with the mace!), was Julie Wright with Hudson followed by Linda Hanks with Macken in 2nd, Debbie Morgan with Clemmie, Elaine Spalding with Cinders and in fifth place Reg and Jackie with Ted.
EVENT 2 - Most Handsome Dog
Our judge for the Novelty classes this year was Gemma Hearne who also had a set of unenviable tasks throughout the day. Her first was Most Handsome Dog where over 20 dogs entered the ring each deserving a place of course but Gemma had to choose just 5.
Her final line up had Bentley with Kirsty in first place, Ted Backe with Jackie Tomkins in second, Merlin with Philippa Green in third, Henry with Sharon Barnet in 4th and Brewster with Dave Biggins in fifth.
EVENT 3 Prettiest Bitch
After the dogs came the bitches and another 20 plus class for Gemma to look over.
Gemma's final five were 1st Kassie with Anne Wragg, 2nd Willow with Joanne Wildman, 3rd Tinkerbell with Lilly Barker, 4th Tess with Amy Stammers and 5th Sophie with Carol Davies
EVENT 4 Dog The Judge Would Most Like to Take Home
Apologies to all the entrants here, we had a problem with our judge who kept saying she wanted to take them all home!
After a bit of "on the job retraining", about not taking the title of the class too literally, Gemma came up with the following Line Up
1st place Vicky Fletcher's Sky, 2nd Anne New's Murphy, 3rd Sharon Bennett's Henry, 4th Stephen Regan's Ben and in 5th Nick Howards's Bentley.
EVENT 5 Waggiest Tail
Another good entry and difficult job for Gemma.
In first spot Lola with Nikki Milles, 2nd Amber with Carole Davies, 3rd Matthew Howard with Bentley, Harkey with Danielle Clough, and 5th Barney with Beverly Knight
EVENT 6 Decorated Cart Swiss Theme
In many ways a flagship event for our breed reflecting its roots and a special huge thank you to everyone who entered. Mark Avery was rapidly learning how difficult these classes are to judge.
Mark checks to see if the mace is still there before he makes any decisions!!
1st Jackie and Reg with Ted, 2nd Margaret with Tilly, 3rd Charlie and Clemmie with Debbie, 4th Julie with Hudson and 5th Duggie and Haggis with Tom.
EVENT 7 Fancy Dress Dog and Handler
Unfortunately there were no entries for this class and its future will have to be reviewed.
EVENT 8 Junior Handling 8-11 years
All the "junior" Junior Handlers
1st Emma Barrett with Diesel, 2nd Millie Brewer with Katie, 3rd Sam Howard with Bentley, 4th Matthew Hay with Merlin and 5th Abbey O'Donahue with Holly
EVENT 9 Junior Handling 12-16 years
1st Lucy Brewer with Katie, 2nd Matt Howard with Bentley, 3rd Abbey Welsh with Simba, 4th Ben Welsh with Merlin, 5th Katie Collins with Teddy
The Puppy Parades
The Puppy parades are a chance to show off your new puppy and give your youngster some experience of other dogs and being in the ring for a short while. No winners or losers so an easy class for Gemma to deal with getting her hands all the lovely babies, some small and some not so small as the age range goes from 4 months up to 12 months
During the Lunch Break Emily Green gave a short Junior Handling Class
EVENT 10 Biscuit Catching
This event needed a special Risk Assessment all of its own on a day like today, with the force of the wind we could have had "killer biscuits" flying around!!
1st Harley with Danielle Clough, 2nd Buster with Stephen Regan, 3rd Merlin with Lucy Brewer, 4th Rosie with Donna James, 5th Tashoi with Rachel Brogdon
Event 11 Irish Brace
The usual uncoordinated assortment, some of the dogs weren't matched up either!!
1st Amy Stammers with Chester and Lucy, 2nd Mr Soleman with Rodney and Fizz, 3rd Helen Slaymaker with Daisy and Cookey, 4th Rachel Brogden with Tash and Rosco, 5th Robert O'Connor with Brooster and Shaun.
Event 12 Egg and Spoon
1st Lucy Brewer with Merlin, 2nd Nick Howard with Bentley, 3rd Amelia Brewer with Katie, 4th Kelsey O'Connor with Willow, 5th Amy O'Connor with Holly
Event 13 Carting Turnout
This is the class for carters with no gimmicks or fancy dress, judged purely on the condition of the dog and harness. The place to see shining brass work and polished leather.
1st Bruce Hellingsworth with Remy, 2nd Yvonne Boyd with Poppy, 3rd Debbie Morgan with Charlie, 4th Belle Owen with Solo
A bumper entry on the course this year and still finished in good time - well done to Judge Brian Boyd, his stewards and everyone concerned. Don't think the wind caused any major problems on the carting course but the ribbon rail could have been renamed the "horizontal" ribbon rail!
Carting Presentations
Carting Competitors
Full Results
Beginners
1st Richard Hallam with Horace 127pts Pass
2nd Aileen Barnard with Jess 125 pts Pass
3rd Keith Brown with Hetty 125 pts Pass
4th Debbie Morgan with Clemmie 124 pts Pass
5th Yvonne Boyd with Poppy 124 pts Pass
6th Pete Garrard with Cimo 123.5 pts Pass
7th Lena Chandler with Mai 123 pts Pass
8th John Flipance with Molly 123 pts Pass
9th Rod Hanks with Macken 123 pts Pass
10th Anne Miller with Sassy 122 pts Pass
11th Glen White with Lincoln 121 pts Pass
12th Jackie Tomkins with Ted 119 pts Pass
13th Jo Wildman with Willow 111 pts Fail
Intermediate
1st Tom Murray with Haggis 178 pts Pass
2nd Aileen Barnard with Trudy 175 pts Pass
3rd Lucinda Hughes with Ernie 174 pts Pass
4th Julie Wright with Hudson 173 pts Pass
5th Carol Davis with Amber 172 pts
6th Lee Palmer with Dudley 171 pts Pass
7th Glen White with Gina 171 pts Pass
Advanced
1st Bruce Hellingsworth with Asti 247.5 pts Pass
2nd Elaine Spalding with Cinders 247 pts Pass
3rd Debbie Morgan with Charlie 243 pts Pass
4th Jean Hellingsworth with Ruby Pass
5th Wendy Murray with Flora 234 pts Pass
6th Pete Garrard with Niva 234 pts Pass
7th Wendy Murray with Duggie 233 pts Pass
8th Margaret Bailey with Tilly 230 pts Pass
9th Belle Owen with Solo 228 pts Pass
10th Lena Chandler with Sophie 226 pts Pass
11th Mervyn Green with Amy 220 pts Fail
12th Philippa Green with Harvey 216 pts Fail
Normal host Nicola Whyte had to withdraw, so at fairly short notice Sue Garner and daughter Laura stood in for us. It is not an easy event to drop in on with its combination of relaxed competition and somewhat disorganised practice but Sue did a marvellous job for us and we have received some good feedback from people who took part. The conditions were particularly problematical on the agility course with equipment blowing around in a fashion we'd never seen before but generally people took all the problems in good spirit and understood the way things were due to the exceptional wind.
Agility Results
Beginners
1st Jet with Carol Calder
2nd Defa with Ross Woodward
3rd Humphrey with Suzanne Compagni
Novice
1st Ella with Yvonne Clough
2nd Jess with Aileen Barnard (missing from photo)
3rd Cinders with Elaine Spalding
4th Ernie with Lucinda Hughes
5th Sophie with Carol Davis
Flo Williams was in charge of the Obedience for the second time at our events and looked as though she was enjoying herself. Such a noisy wind with ring tape constantly flapping ferociously can make it difficult for dogs to concentrate or more importantly hear instructions so well done to everyone who tried today.
Obedience Have A Go BMD
1st Sam with Diesel
2nd Rosie with Dave
3rd Julie with Hudson
4th Lynne with Holly
NB Unfortunately the original winner of this class was inadvertently incorrectly entered and as soon as this was pointed out withdrew so the placings here are not as given out on the day.
Obedience Triers BMD
1st Lynne with Holly
2nd Sam with Diesel
3rd Dave with Rosie
4th Bev with Molly
Obedience Future Stars BMD
1st Lucinda with Oakley
2nd Yvonne with Ella
3rd Yvonne with Ellie
4th Aileen with Jess
5th Carol with Amber
Obedience Competitors after the presentations (..... most of the dogs behaved for the photo!)
CHARACTER ASSESSMENTS
Graded Excellent
Chester - Denise Stammers
Rolo - Vicky Fletcher
Rodney - Jennifer Soloman-Kretay
Bungle - Jennifer Soloman-Kretay
Banjo - Lianne Marsden
Holly Mouse - Lianne Marsden
Mattie - Jeanette Stringfellow
Ouzo - Lynn Jones
Sadie - Lesley Messih & Brian Hill
Graded Pass
Herbert - Jennifer Soloman-Kretay
GOOD CITIZENS - BRONZE
Pass
Candy with Anne
Harvey with Emily Green
Whilst the Garden Party is definitely about the taking part and not the winning,
whenever we are reflecting the working side of our breed with three way
competitions we do have an overall winner who has collected the most points in
all three working disciplines of Working Cart Course, Agility and Obedience.
Dave Hardy - Look out - "Official on a Mission"
With new "worker-outer" committee member Dave Hardy on the case to chase up the results the overall winner of the Top Working Dog at the Garden Party this year was soon calculated as being
Jess with Aileen Barnard.
Well done to Aileen and Jess - the very end of the day but still windy!!
Either scroll up and down the whole page or use these links to jump to different sections
Pre Garden Party Party
Main Ring Events
Working Cart Course
Obedience
Overall Winner
Feedback
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Comments on this year's Garden Party for this page can be sent to web@bernese.co.uk (or any committee member) please make it clear if you do not want them posting. Also please let us know about any errors which should be corrected (there will be some!)
Hi Steve,
Just a quick note to say that Tom and I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and the Saturday evening barbeque. There was such a lot of food and I don't think any of us were going to starve and we even had 'doggy bags' to take back with us. I'd like to say a special thank you to Jeanette and her team who worked so hard making sure the BBQ ran smoothly catering for such a large turn out of people. The 'Over 40s Team thought the quiz was well compered but where did the committee find that ever so special bottle of wine from at the end for the overall winners? Unfortunately our team under performed, not like us, I put it down to the wind (surely you mean wine! - Ed) and some of us hard of hearing.
Sunday was needless to say very windy again and I have the wind chill sunburn to prove it but everyone enjoyed the day regardless. I think wind must be the worst weather condition to cope with especially when you have to deal with paperwork, a micro phone and then making sure all the gazebo's don't go awol, we found the cover for our carts a field away, probably making its way up to the M1!
So once again, well done to everyone on the committee.
Kind regards
Tom and Wendy Murray
Just a note to say many thanks to all the committee for all their hard work as usual & another great Garden Party.
We had a wonderful day despite having to hang on to everything we owned to prevent the wind blowing it all away ! The Agility was interesting with the jumps blowing over making them unusual obstacles but Ernie still managed a 4th , & Oakley did a great round despite being eliminated for jumping the wrong fence ! Ernie entertained the Obedience Judge & Steward by showing just what a great sense of humour a Bernese has, he decided he’d already retired from competition & refused to play our silly Obedience games anymore, a Comedy Award should be winging it’s way to him soon ! Fortunately Oakley showed how it should be done & I was thrilled to find he’d won his Obedience Class of Future Stars, clever puppy at only 21months. The biggest thrill of the day for us was Ernie passing his last Intermediate Carting & being 3rd, it was the last time he’d cart & wonderful that he passed, he has now retired as an Advanced Carter. Ernie also took part in his first veterans parade, the first of many we hope, & it was great to see so many happy dogs in the parade, Congratulations to Steve for managing to hang on to all the bits of paper with the dogs info on them despite the wind, that was definitely Olympic standard paper juggling !!
Many Thanks also go to all the Judges & Stewards for their hard work & a wonderful day.
Hope to see you all again in September,
Lucinda, Colin, Ernie & Oakley Hughes
Dear Sandra
Could you pass on our thanks to all involved with the Garden Party we had a wonderful time yet again.
The BBQ the night before was a great do, the food, entertainment and company were fab, special thanks to Steve for cooking and putting up with all the heckling during the quiz.
The Garden Party itself although a bit on the breezy side !! was great fun we entered a few classes and did the Rescue Parade of course. We (that is Jet Rob & I) especially enjoyed the Agility Class, Jet loved it and did well too. The Judge was very helpful during the practice session with good tips on how to do each obstacle as we were beginners, if you could pass our thanks on to her too.
Hope to see you in September
Jet, Rob & Caro
We had a wonderful day and greatly appreciate the hard work of all the committee. Lena's shop is amazing; it goes from strength to strength.
Helen Slaymaker
Hi,
First an apology for having to withdraw from judging the working cart course at
such short notice. I tore the tendons/ligaments in my knee a few day previous
and found walking very difficult. My thanks to Brian for taking over.
I spent most of the weekend sat outside my motorhome watching everything and it
was obvious just how much hard work goes into making the Garden Party the
success that it is. The carting course, agility and obedience rings had a steady
stream of competitors all enjoying themselves, and I hobbled over to watch the
puppy parade and the rescue and veteran parades.
Having a sore knee didn't effect my appetite and the BBQ was a feast fit for a
king. The quiz was great fun and the entertainment couldn't have been better.
Thanks to everyone involved. Your hard work really is appreciated/
Linda Smith
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