March 11

South West Report March 2011

Very difficult to remember the weather conditions when the last column was put together for the January edition... Seems to be a different planet. Hope you are all fully recovered and are now anticipating – if not already started – lambing. And so the year moves on.

Nursery Trialling in the south-west was hit quite hard by the aforementioned weather and a few had to be cancelled. Ian Bickle of Chillaton very kindly stepped in to host Ian MacKay’s nursery.

To date – 12^th February – five of eight proposed Nurseries have taken place, the weather having snarled up the others. Thanks are due to the providers of all venues – including Andrew Hendy, A & B Cole, Alan and Bernadette Bennett and Ian Bickle, as mentioned earlier. John Carter is always generous in providing a Venue and sheep and will, no doubt, have stepped in a couple more times before the Nursery season has ended.

20^th March and 3^rd April are allocated as Nursery Trial days but Venues not yet confirmed. 17^th April will be at John Carter’s as before. See www.bearwoodfarm.co.uk for further information.

With the Nursery Trials mostly at venues at the far west of the Region, some Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire handlers might, in future, find it a long way to travel in the light of the increased fuel costs.

Club Reports

Cornwall

The Open Season will start as is usual with John Carter’s eight trial weekend on the 14^th and 15^th May at Delabole. 2 X fields; 2 sessions am and pm = 4 trials each day. We really must try to get there this year – it all sounds a lot of fun!

21^st and 22^nd May will be the West Rose Trial and the Tyringham Arms Trial held at the same venue followed by the 30^th May at a venue yet to be confirmed.

All entries to John Carter 01840 213339

Trials will be posted in the new Schedule which is available to fully paid up members.

Your subscription is now due! Secretary Trevor Hopper 01872 501886

The Annual General Meeting is 27^th April at the Blue Anchor Freddon at 7.30pm.

All Trials will be posted on the ISDS website in due course.

Devon

The usual late April Trial is unfortunately not being held this year so the first trial for the D&E will be on the weekend of:

4^th and 5^th June at Sanduck Cross Farm. 5^th June is the Sanduck Cross Farm Charity Trial.

Entries to Ian MacKay 01647 440287

11^th June The Princetown Trial, Dartmoor (a new venue)

Entries to Lesley Lock 01752 269620

12^th June Mortehoe Trial, North Devon

Entries to David Kennard 01271 870056

Schedules will be available on the payment of your subscription which is now due.

Aeron Jermyn 01837 811156

These and all subsequent Trials will be posted on the D&E website and also the ISDS website.

Somerset

The Club’s Christmas Trial went ahead as planned despite the weather being difficult. Fortunately by Tuesday 27^th December, heavy rain had washed away much of the snow – so was well. Gordon Martin and Bob won the Driving with Maureen Capes and Mist v. close behind. John Whitely brought in 3^rd an 4^th with Sue and Bess. The Maltese Cross was won by Tony Griffiths and Kerry, followed by Kyle Cox with Glen, Anne Cooper and David Cooper were 3^rd and 4^th respectively with Finn and Jan.

The AGM is Tuesday 19^th April and to be held at the Fox and Hounds, Charlton Adam as in previous years starting at 7.30pm. Light refreshments will be provided. Club subscriptions are due at this time.

A full programme of summer trials will be arranged after the Annual General Meeting on 19^th April. Meanwhile the training days will take place on Sunday March 27^th and Sunday 17^th April as already planned.

All club members are welcome to these training days irrespective of the county in which they live – especially young handlers. We only claim Funding for the proportion of participants who are eligible.

The club Spring Trial on Saturday 1^st May at Babcary.

John’s Lydford Trial will be held on Saturday 6^th August at Babcary followed by a Club Trial on the 7^th at the same Venue.

And it goes without saying that the successful friendly trials for which Somerset is so well known will continue and it is anticipated that the programme will follow the same format as 2010. There will be either a trial or training days taking place every month. This will be published after the AGM.

Charity Fun ‘Trial’ Saturday 14^th May is a special day. We were approached last year and mention has already been made in previous editions of the ISN of the 'Bay to Bay Challenge' in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Appeal and has been set up by Tony Cartwright from Chorley, Lancashire. There is a major Fund Raising and Awareness week for Cystic Fibrosis commencing on Monday, 9th May 2011.

Tony and his Team are being sponsored to travel from Chorley, through Wales and down to Somerset competing in different 'challenges' en route.

They will be with us on May 14th, and their challenge is to work in partnership with some of our members to work a dog around an improvised trial course!! Some practice will be needed, no doubt.

We are asking club members to enter into the spirit of this Fun Trial, which will start at 10.00am, and come to support this effort. There may be time to run a ‘sweepstake’ trial afterwards to show our visitors how it is done!

Caroline will give more details of the day at the AGM - so, please come along to hear how you can help and offer support.

Other stuff

We asked the three south west Club Chairmen about their thoughts on the increased cost of fuel and how it might affect Trialling. John Carter (Chair Cornwall) commented that a recent trip that he and a couple of chums made to Norfolk took four fuel stops at £60 a throw with his 4 X 4 with 12 dogs on board and in the towing trailer. “Makes trialling anywhere but in your own patch a bit pricey,” he said.

It will help if people can double up – which they do to an extent already – but this will be hard on the fiercely independent handler. John anticipates that less people will attend. Rob Watson (Chair D&E) added that the fuel price increase is bound to have an effect but people will still travel somehow to experience different sheep and terrain but maybe not so often and not so far. He also said that with the south west being a pointy bit past Bristol, it is often considered the West Country stops here and the problem for our triallists is that they quickly exhaust what is on offer locally. With the higher cost of fuel, hard decisions will have to be made. We are concerned that ‘up-country’ people might not attend in the numbers that we have enjoyed.

One alternative is to always arrange Trials to be held over two days – if not at the same venue then at ones close to each other – thereby giving a good weekend’s sport. New handlers might be affected if their points tally is low.

John Whiteley (Chair Somerset) agrees with his two colleagues and adds that where a handler has only the one dog to run – say – a nursery dog and where no points are to be gained then the handler might think twice about travelling a 300 mile round trip from one end of our Region to the other. It might be something that the Somerset Club could look at with a second winter trial held as a Nursery.

All three gentlemen also agreed that the new handler needs loads of encouragement and they know advice from the ‘old hands’ is vital.

We spend a lot time in this Magazine talking about dogs and sheep, in many discussions appear to be incidental. However in considering the welfare of sheep – as we do - there is one area of sheep husbandry that is very important and rarely is mentioned. Shearing. Has to be done. Around early springtime the new years wool growth kicks in and by late April/May time, once they have reared their lambs and the weather is warmer, sheep are beginning to get uncomfortable. Most shepherds ‘have someone in’ to shear their sheep – many of them Falklanders and New Zealanders but, training for Shearing is conducted in the UK and is provided by the British Wool Marketing Board’s Training section – British Wool Training.

You need to contact one of the five offices for further information

Wales: Diana Lavers T: 01686 626811 E: dianalavers@bwmbcymru.org.uk

Southern England Alison Gould T: 01392 477944 E: bwmb@devonyfc.co..uk

North of England Gillian Tart T: 01274 688666 E: gilliantart@britishwool.org.uk

Scotland Donna MacKenzie T:01877 339657

E: donnamackenzie@britishwool.org.uk

Northern Ireland Gary Haslem T: 028 944 26816

(Greenmount College)

Funding is available in some regions.

In addition to the shearing training British Wool Training also offer courses allied to the Wool industry – Gear maintenance and grinding for shearing; also lameness in sheep; lambing and sheep husbandry for beginners. Courses vary between Regions so it is advised to enquire.

Continuing on the Training theme, All About Sheepdogs started a group of twelve handlers and dogs on a five session course following an Assessment session on 15^th February. The group was split into two for ease of training. Very pleased to announce that Duchy College are assisting with the cost of this course. It should be added that BWMB Wales are also in the position of providing sheepdog training and enquiries can be made to Diana Lavers at the above contact details.

If you remember a few editions ago we published a piece about Tony Rofe about his ‘week in the life of …. ‘ , when he went to South Island, New Zealand. After publication Tony sent over some copies of the ISN and the result was that the NZ Sheep Dog Trial Association reprinted the whole article in their 51^st Edition December 2010. We think the phrase could be – “well chuffed”!

We are also ‘well chuffed’ with Tony and fellow West Country ISDS member, Jane Harper, on their recent elevation to Directorship with the Association. With David Kennard, we now have three Directors in the South West. Congratulations Tony and Jane.

With Jed Watson always at the top of the Results column and Rob Watson now Chair of D&E SS, it was eldest brother Kenny’s ‘turn’ back last summer. Did any of you catch – to me – the slightly quirky – Edwardian Farm programme in early January? Well there was our Kenny with his dogs showing the nation how it is done on Dartmoor. Kenny told us that it took a couple of days to film the short piece that was aired and he thoroughly enjoyed it all. Brilliant Kenny and the programme evoked memories of Dartmoor in one viewer living far away from the area who phoned us for Kenny’s contact details. As a young man the viewer used to visit Kenny’s family back in the 1940’s!

We were a bit amused in the same programme to see Dartmoor shearers George Mudge and son Andrew competently blade shearing some of Pearce’s White Face Dartmoor but they were using the Bowen method of shearing which was not invented by Godfrey Bowen until after WW II! We happen to know that George would be fully aware of this but that the TV Director would not be!

‘Afore we do go’ – bit of an oversight in the last edition. Mrs. Hilary Jones stepped down as Chair of the Devon and Exmoor Sheepdog Society following her statutory two year stint. Hilary was thanked by the Committee and incoming Chair, Rob Watson, for her contribution to the running of the club during that time. Apologies to Hilary from us for this omission. Should also add that, despite the absence of her famous ‘buggy’, Hilary continues to compete with the assistance of crutches. Tide, or ‘woe betide ….’ as she calls him and Mist are Hilary’s current dogs.

Finally – A friend has just gone to live and work on St. Helena for a couple of years to set up Community based projects. She has an agricultural background and attendant qualifications.

We were talking to Paul Peck, whom is the subject of the main section of the Falkland piece, about this and he mentioned that his friend Joe Hollins is now the Vet. on St.Helena a bit further over in the south Atlantic – 5 sea faring days out of Cape Town. Joe, we understand, is a West Country man. Oh, we like this sort of coincidence!