The day started as we all met at forton services , we had seven dogs entered: two Hungarian Wire Haired Vizslas, one German Shorthaired Pointer, one smooth Vizsla, two Italian Spinoni, and one Weimaraner.

We all set off to the ground, to be met by the keeper Ted Foster, Dave the other gun for the day and the judge Alan Drysdale. The weather was terrible; very windy with some heavy showers - sadly that’s something we can’t book in advance! The type of land that we where working the dogs on was rough white grass land that birds can easily hide in. I would at this time like to thank Ted as he had fed this area for the last three months, specifically for this day, and let no one shoot on it.

For the first run, we wanted to give all the dogs a head wind to work into. The dogs had their first run and all performed very well handling the ground well, and nearly all found birds. After the first run we broke for lunch and Alan give a few words of encouragement. Then off we went for the next run. This time we gave the dogs a different wind to handle - a back wind. Most of the dogs handled it quite well. We decided that the dogs that had not got any game to retrieve would be run again. All but one dog ended the day with a retrieve. The only bird I got chance to shoot and hit was not found!!!!!

Everybody said they had a really good day, and had learnt quite a lot from the day. We finished off the day with Alan saying a few words and I presented Alan, Ted and Dave with a bottle of sloe gin each, with thanks from the association. All runners where given a certificate of attendance. The guns award was given to mark Herbert and Milo (an HWV).

So ended the day.

I have seen the shoot captain since this day, and gave him a very large whole nut chocolate bar, with thanks from the association. He told us if we want to use the land again to just sort out the date with the keeper.

Thanks for all who took part in this event hopefully next year we will have a full card of wires!!!!!

Mark Lovell (Working Sec)