Trial Report: Scottish Open and WUSV / FCI Qualifier, 18th & 19 April 2009
Track Layers: Glyn Andrew & Mick Baverstock
Saturday morning started off bright but with a bitterly cold wind, welcome to Scotland in summer. The fields were lush with the grass just a nice length for tracking and only 5 minutes way from the obedience and protection stadium. As the road at the tracking fields were very narrow it was decided after the tracking draw that the competitors would go up in three groups of five. There were originally 16 competitors but Louise Mounkley had to withdraw as her dog sustained an injury earlier in the week
The first five competitors to the tracking were Eric Wight 95 points, Henriette Bohnesdt 97 points, Chris Bows 92 points, Eleanor Henley 93 points and Mark Boreham(missed one article) 87 points. A good start for everyone and it certainly got the tongues wagging back at the stadium. The next five up for tracking were Percy Green 88 points, David Martin 90 points, Geoff Tordoff 87 points and Carol Phillips and Dougie Bannerman (missed an article)92 points. The last group up for tracking were Bill Burns (missed an article) 85 points, Nick Koskinas (one article and two legs) 28 points, Wesley Rouche (did not finish track) 46 points, Richard James 91 points, and Phil Sergent 96 points. Not bad Phil after complaining in some foreign language about being drawn last in the tracking for the umpteenth time.
Protection: Jamie Bows Short work and Colin Austin the long work helper.
On Sunday the day started bright and got warmer as time went on. The competitors were split into two groups, the first group of eight competitors doing obedience and then protection and in the afternoon the second group of seven competitors with a dummy dog making the numbers up at the end. (This is no reflection on the dog or the handler) First off was Eric Wight obedience 86 points and 84 points in protection and Henriette Bohnstedt 82 points in obedience and 92 in protection. Chris Bows was next up with 81 points in obedience and 88 in protection and he was followed by Eleanor Henley with 77 points in obedience and 90 points in protection. Mark Boreman was next with 76 points for obedience and 86 points for protection, and he was followed by Percy green with 56 points in obedience 90 points in protection. That was the end of the first group for obedience and protection, and we had a half hours break for lunch.
During the morning it started to get hotter and this may have shown in the performance of some of the dogs. First off was Carol Phillips and she scored 90 points in obedience and 78 points in protection and next came Dougie Bannerman with 94 points for obedience and 86 points in protection. Next off was Bill Burns with 80 points in obedience and 85 in protection and the next competitor Nick Koskinas had a score of 44 points but unfortunately had to withdraw his dog at the metre hurdle as the dog had an injured foot. Hopefully he has made a full recovery. Next was Wesley Rouche with a score of 81 points for obedience and 90 points in protection and he was followed by Richard James with a score of 83 in obedience and 87 in protection. Our last competitor Phil Sergent still complaining about being last man had a score of 80 in protection and 84 in protection. The last bit of real excitement for the day was the legendary raffle where everyone except me seemed to win a prize.
And so ended the Scottish open, won by a Scotsman Dougie Bannerman with 272 points. Henrietta Bohnstedt came a close second with 271 points, and Eric Wight came third with 265 points. We hope than you enjoyed being in Scotland as much as we enjoyed having you here, hope to see you all next year.
By Bill Burns