Tournament reports 2009
Beckett's Farm 3rd/4th October 2009
We returned to the Wolf Packs show for the second time this year. Looking at the division one line up predicted some fantastic and close racing with the expectation for quick times and maybe another record set. Our height dog Millie was measured at 8 inches which was great and all the dogs looked on form. Seeded first, we were scheduled to race second in the division so we had the chance to see Bassett Hotdogs and Live Wires race each other first. Bassetts were looking on fire and outclassing the Cheshire team. I knew deep down that our record was going to be beaten and Bassetts did hitting a 16.60. It seemed quite gutting but we thought let's just get on with todays racing. Not sure what happened but everything went to pot loose changes and dogs going wide on the box, we just didn't have what we did at Shackerstone. We hit a 16.75 but with a -0.01 early by Millie on the start meant it was void. Things went downhill really from the third race as we lost against Moltens as Louise got light after light after light. Dad was also struggling to get his cross over right with many wide changings costing us valuable legs. Chuckle just didn't seem to run greatly either as he was going awfully wide again on the box and Millie was inconsistent with her speed making change overs harder. We were 4th which was very disappointing and with a fastest time of 17.01. After this anti-climatic performance to end our season it seems we need to go back to the drawing board and re-look at dogs line up and work on some areas such as passing and box work.
On a more positive note High Voltage ran a stormer in div 2 coming third and beating our local rival team Racing Herts. They were very consistent with their times and clocked an 18.07. More box work for them and maybe a change in order could get them into the 17s which would be great!
Shackerstone 5th/6th September 2009
In the past we have not been so lucky at Shackerstone as back in 2007 two of our dogs collided resulting in our 4 dog team going down to 3 dogs. Then back last year we were woken up at 5 am to be told to evacuate the showground due to heavy rainfall during the night and the river bursting it's bank. So we returned back to Shaka Khan this year hoping that the weather would hold strong and have an accident free weekend.
Dooley raced on Saturday with Volume who managed to improve their seed time and come second in division 6. Dooley really wasn't playing the game and a after tight change over with Rocco, Dooley started not to return over the jumps opting for the easier option. Dooley did manage to complete two runs all day so little progress was made in the afternoon.
Badger with his team mates in Flyers were running on Sunday with sister team High Voltage joining them in division 1. Voltage were not out classed in division 1 taking Bassett Hotdogs and Running 4 Mutts to 5 legs and gaining a new seed time of 18.06. But I can't forget to mention how Flyers raced on Sunday not only winning division 1 but becoming the fastest ever BFA team running 16.66 seconds! Badger ran so consistently and the team hit many sub 17 times with Millie really excelling as start dog. Unfortunately we cannot be called UK record holders due to the run not being filmed however I am still happy that on the BFA website we are still the fastest BFA team ever. Another excellent weekend for racing and another fantastic show hosted by the Nunnies.
Beckett's Farm 11th/12th July 2009
Wow what a tournament this turned out to be. Not only did two teams run sub 17, Bassett Hotdogs managed to run the new and current BFA record against us! Starting off with Saturday which turned out to be a bit of a disaster for the poor Wolf Pack team. All of Saturdays racing was ran by manual timing due to the lights failing first thing in the morning. Manual timing proved very hard for the judges and line judges as all passes were judged by eye and accuracy on the stopwatch was very important. After a few races the tournament started to get under way and some great racing was achieved.
Sunday was a different story completely as Steve Leek travelled from Wirral to Birmingham to deliver the Wolfs a working set of lights. The watch dog lights were brilliant as they also included visible timers. Badger was running in Flyers in div 1. We all decided to scrap racing mode and go for a time to secure a place in div 1 at the Nationals. The first two races of the day were very frustrating as we got six lights in a row and lost both 3-0. To make matters worse the dogs were running awesome with Badger clocking many sub 4s and the team hitting 16.63, 16.71 & 16.77 with very slight earlies. The last race of the morning was against Northants and after getting a 17.30 with slack passes we tightened up and managed a 16.91! I had a half a foot pass but it didn't matter we had broke 17 for the first time! The final race of the day was us Flyers against Bassett Hotdogs. The Hotdogs looked amazing and ran a new record of 16.70 on the second leg!
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