Well, we couldnt have had more of a mixed weekend!
Saturday was Chasers and Starters
Chasers first in, Inca was not running her best, though she had been injured at her last tournament so perhaps was a little cautious and certainly was not running at her best in the morning, we lost the first race to lights and the second race to a faster team. In the afternoon Inca had put her racing head on and was running much better, so of course Mia decided she couldnt handle close changes and began to run out, which left us with no option but to give big changes and ended up with a fourth place which in all fairness wasn't too bad!
Starters; Storm Warning, saw Billy, Paddy, Gypsy, Zeva (Allstars), Babs (Allstars) and Mylo come away with a third which was great! Gypsy started off quite badly, likely my fault as she is normally run by Beth and I was probably doing something wrong, so she kept forgetting her ball! By the afternoon her head was screwed on and she ran brilliantly! Special mentions to Natalie and Paddy for not only running extremely well, but also for both keeping cool heads in and around the ring and Paddy enjoying his racing rather than stressing the whole time, keep it up and it wont be long before he is in Open!
Sunday we had Hunters and Seekers:
Hunters were first in with Tes making her official Open debut! Myself and Darryl couldn't run the Rotts as we had been struck down by a bug and it would not have been a pretty sight if we had attempted to race, so instead they were promptly handed over to Kay and Nathan! Neither of whom had ever run a dog in Open competition before and I am so proud of how well they did! Nathan got an average start time of 0.05 with Kane which is really quite impressive and Kay had her changes nailed! Tes had a couple of blips when she realised how close some of the changes were, but overall ran fantastically throughout the day and did the whole team proud by gaining her Flyball Dog Award!!! the team placed 6th overall, as they had to give loose changes for little Tes to ensure she was successful, but it was definitely worth it! WELL DONE TES!!
Seekers was to be a mixed team of new "green" and experienced dogs. As sometimes happens in Flyball things did not go to plan at all with this team! Skye was making her Open debut and although we didn't expect her to run perfectly all day, we did think she should manage most of it! Well, when she got in the ring her little head went "POP"! She did a warm up perfectly and then noticed the box judges, the other dogs, the other teams, all the people and bless her she went up, got her ball and then proceeded to parade her ball around the ring, showing everyone "what a clever girl she was"! After two races we went NFC and finally got her to complete, but definitely back to starters with Skye! Macdui and Roxy did fabulously! From memory, Mac ran out twice, Roxy once, neither visiting the other lane and both going straight back to their handlers, both doing fabulous box turns and handling a few close changes really well! Big thanks to Wilfred for joining us for the day and running nicely for Karen, (even if he did nip her when trying to keep hold of his ball!)
Big well done to all on the day, for running dogs and doing jobs they had NOT been trained for, you all pulled it together and worked as a team in very difficult circumstances! They were very short handed and Katherine did a sterling job of running the two teams single handed as Darryl and myself were NOT in any state to enter the ring!
Monday was Multibreed day, two teams: Tropical Storm and Storm Dynamix, BOTH in the same division!!
Waking up still feeling groggy from our bout of sickness (and other nastiness) I looked at the paperwork to discover we were first race in against EACH OTHER! This meant, getting all dogs out and handing them to various people! Darryl still incapable of running; we were still a little short handed, so first race goes in, I was to run Roi, whilst Katherine ran Ronnie, but Roi didnt like this idea of running for Auntie Vicki while his mum was on the other side! So we pulled Ronnie and put Wilfred in his place so Katherine could run Roi! After MUCH confusion we finally set about racing! Dynamix (Kane, Beeba; Beardie from Leeds Owlers, Mia and Ronnie) ran very well as a team with Nathan again running Kane as start dog and Marie running Mia. They came fourth which, could have been better, but still a pretty good result, seeing as the team had only ever had one training session!
Tropical Storm (Nora; Beardie from Leeds Owlers, Roi, Jasmine and Honey ran beautifully! Myself running Jasmine and Kay running Honey. They won all of their races and then came the final race of the day, against Diverse Demons (Top seed Multibreed team in the country) WHAT A RACE! Demonz lost the first two legs to lights and JUST pipped us in the last three legs taking our potential first place rosette! You cannot complain at being beaten by a team like that, taking it to five legs and losing by a whisker, it was FABULOUS!
So, as I say, a VERY mixed weekends, more mistakes by me, thinking Skye was ready for open when she wasn't, Darryl and myself being struck by some god awful bug which left inexperienced handlers to run experienced dogs and leaving Katherine to run two novice teams. Then the elation of Tes gaining her flyball dog and some fantastic racing in the Multibreed divisions!
We still have a long way to go, and maybe one day we'll manage a full weekend without any major disasters!
Saturday was Chasers and Starters
Chasers first in, Inca was not running her best, though she had been injured at her last tournament so perhaps was a little cautious and certainly was not running at her best in the morning, we lost the first race to lights and the second race to a faster team. In the afternoon Inca had put her racing head on and was running much better, so of course Mia decided she couldnt handle close changes and began to run out, which left us with no option but to give big changes and ended up with a fourth place which in all fairness wasn't too bad!
Starters; Storm Warning, saw Billy, Paddy, Gypsy, Zeva (Allstars), Babs (Allstars) and Mylo come away with a third which was great! Gypsy started off quite badly, likely my fault as she is normally run by Beth and I was probably doing something wrong, so she kept forgetting her ball! By the afternoon her head was screwed on and she ran brilliantly! Special mentions to Natalie and Paddy for not only running extremely well, but also for both keeping cool heads in and around the ring and Paddy enjoying his racing rather than stressing the whole time, keep it up and it wont be long before he is in Open!
Sunday we had Hunters and Seekers:
Hunters were first in with Tes making her official Open debut! Myself and Darryl couldn't run the Rotts as we had been struck down by a bug and it would not have been a pretty sight if we had attempted to race, so instead they were promptly handed over to Kay and Nathan! Neither of whom had ever run a dog in Open competition before and I am so proud of how well they did! Nathan got an average start time of 0.05 with Kane which is really quite impressive and Kay had her changes nailed! Tes had a couple of blips when she realised how close some of the changes were, but overall ran fantastically throughout the day and did the whole team proud by gaining her Flyball Dog Award!!! the team placed 6th overall, as they had to give loose changes for little Tes to ensure she was successful, but it was definitely worth it! WELL DONE TES!!
Seekers was to be a mixed team of new "green" and experienced dogs. As sometimes happens in Flyball things did not go to plan at all with this team! Skye was making her Open debut and although we didn't expect her to run perfectly all day, we did think she should manage most of it! Well, when she got in the ring her little head went "POP"! She did a warm up perfectly and then noticed the box judges, the other dogs, the other teams, all the people and bless her she went up, got her ball and then proceeded to parade her ball around the ring, showing everyone "what a clever girl she was"! After two races we went NFC and finally got her to complete, but definitely back to starters with Skye! Macdui and Roxy did fabulously! From memory, Mac ran out twice, Roxy once, neither visiting the other lane and both going straight back to their handlers, both doing fabulous box turns and handling a few close changes really well! Big thanks to Wilfred for joining us for the day and running nicely for Karen, (even if he did nip her when trying to keep hold of his ball!)
Big well done to all on the day, for running dogs and doing jobs they had NOT been trained for, you all pulled it together and worked as a team in very difficult circumstances! They were very short handed and Katherine did a sterling job of running the two teams single handed as Darryl and myself were NOT in any state to enter the ring!
Monday was Multibreed day, two teams: Tropical Storm and Storm Dynamix, BOTH in the same division!!
Waking up still feeling groggy from our bout of sickness (and other nastiness) I looked at the paperwork to discover we were first race in against EACH OTHER! This meant, getting all dogs out and handing them to various people! Darryl still incapable of running; we were still a little short handed, so first race goes in, I was to run Roi, whilst Katherine ran Ronnie, but Roi didnt like this idea of running for Auntie Vicki while his mum was on the other side! So we pulled Ronnie and put Wilfred in his place so Katherine could run Roi! After MUCH confusion we finally set about racing! Dynamix (Kane, Beeba; Beardie from Leeds Owlers, Mia and Ronnie) ran very well as a team with Nathan again running Kane as start dog and Marie running Mia. They came fourth which, could have been better, but still a pretty good result, seeing as the team had only ever had one training session!
Tropical Storm (Nora; Beardie from Leeds Owlers, Roi, Jasmine and Honey ran beautifully! Myself running Jasmine and Kay running Honey. They won all of their races and then came the final race of the day, against Diverse Demons (Top seed Multibreed team in the country) WHAT A RACE! Demonz lost the first two legs to lights and JUST pipped us in the last three legs taking our potential first place rosette! You cannot complain at being beaten by a team like that, taking it to five legs and losing by a whisker, it was FABULOUS!
So, as I say, a VERY mixed weekends, more mistakes by me, thinking Skye was ready for open when she wasn't, Darryl and myself being struck by some god awful bug which left inexperienced handlers to run experienced dogs and leaving Katherine to run two novice teams. Then the elation of Tes gaining her flyball dog and some fantastic racing in the Multibreed divisions!
We still have a long way to go, and maybe one day we'll manage a full weekend without any major disasters!