Bench and Field
The 2016 Cocker Spaniel Championship was held in Perthshire on the Dunira Estate on January 12-13 by invitation from the Enggaard family from Aalborg in Denmark.
On November 30 and December the 1-2 the IGL Retriever Championship returned to the Buccleuch and Queensberry Estate ten years after the last time it was run here.
The 2015 Hunt, Point and Retrieve Championship was held for the third year running on Lord Masham’s Swinton Estate in Yorkshire and attracted an excellent field of 22 runners to show their paces under judges Phil Pearson and Sheila Kuban.
If you read the Kennel Club’s guide to field trials you will see that Annex J(A) 1(a) says that ‘A field trial should be run as nearly as possible to an ordinary day’s shooting.’
The cold, wet summer we have been ‘enjoying’ in the north of the country has not been good for the red grouse, nor for the Pointer and Setter trials. Wet and windy days have meant that several stakes have been cancelled while bad weather in late...
The Pointer and Setter summer trial season opened, as usual, with puppy and novice stakes run on Captain The Honourable Gerald Maitland-Carew’s moor near Lauder in Berwickshire.
Spring trials for Pointers and Setters are split into two blocks. In late March there are trials on grouse held on the heather moors of the north of England and Scotland, then the circuit moves south for further trials on partridge and pheasant on...
In the spring a young dog’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of – grouse. Well it does if the young dog is a Pointer or Setter and the young dog’s owner is fortunate enough to know a friendly moorland gamekeeper.
Wilson Young of Eskdale Shooting Services was the host and Thirlestane Castle Estate was the venue for the Kennel Club’s 85th Spaniel Championship for English Springer Spaniels held from January 8-10.
Take a cold, sunny winter afternoon and a stretch of open countryside sloping down to the chilly waters of the Solway Firth, add ten and a half couple of basset hounds, a few rabbits and a couple of dozen enthusiastic hunt followers and you have a...
On November 14 and 15 the Hunt, Point and Retrieve Championship returned to Swinton Estate, by kind invitation of Lord Masham, following its successful reinstatement in 2013.
The Kennel Club held an all aged any variety retriever stake on the Croglin Estate in Cumbria on August 25. This trial is something of an annual special event because the grouse are not walked up but shot over pointers and setters.
The 2014 Pointer and Setter champion stake was scheduled for August 10-11 on the Duke of Roxburghe’s Byrecleugh Estate in the Scottish borders. The weather forecast ahead of the trial was atrocious: the remnants of Hurricane Bertha were supposed...
When new breeds are imported into the UK it can be extremely frustrating when they do not fit neatly into a particular group. If they are already recognised in their country or region of origin by the FCI or their own kennel club...
The Kennel Club Pointer and Setter spring trial took place at Six Mile Bottom in Cambridgeshire on April 18-19 by kind permission of John Latham and Richard Clarke.
The last year, beginning with my appointment judging the BASC gamekeepers classes, has certainly been varied and it is always great to look back at the very memorable events and of course at the successes of those quality dogs that reach the top...
The Cocker Spaniel Championship for 2013/14 was scheduled to be run on the Duke of Buccleuch’s beautiful Queensberry Estate on January 15-16 and judged by Steve Bolton, Andrew Cunningham, David Rayner and Steve Russell. As will become clear, the...
The Enggard family from Denmark, bought the Dunira Estate, Perthshire in 2008 and since then it has been transformed into a fine shooting and stalking venue.
THE KINTBURY Working Gundog Club held their 16 dog open Cocker Spaniel stake on November 26 2013 at Eling Park Estate near Newbury by kind permission of Christopher Spence and the head gamekeeper Steve Vale...
