ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND 2012

To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Club Registration with the Kennel Club. We held a weekend of celebrations, firstly the Open Show held on Saturday 9th June at Bletchingley which was judged by Carina Arvidsson from Sweden of the Freckles Kennel. Full details and pictures can be seen elsewhere.

That evening a BBQ was held at the Chairman's home at East Hoathly which was attended by those who were staying over the weekend in caravans and a motor home, plus others who lived or were staying locally. One of the puddings provided for the Show lunch had not been eaten, so guess who enjoyed it that night?!

The following day a Funday was held at the same venue attended by around 100 people. As they arrived they were greeted and split into groups, loosely based on ages and experience of their dogs, in order to take part in a variety of activities throughout the morning, working training, obedience, trimming help and ringcraft.

Just before a ploughmans lunch there was an informal parade of several groups of dogs from kennels including Llon, Julita, Amblelight, Killena, Cherryheath and Thurbry (apologies if any have been missed) Wine was provided by the Club for everyone and a toast to the Club and The Queen was proposed by Stephen Pick, following which the fantastic cake (see the photo in the Gallery) provided by Member, Janey Sutherland, holding pride of place on the day, was cut by Chairman Stephen Pick and our President Doreen Bowen.

In the afternoon a Fun dog show was held, including a Baby Puppy Rally, of which there were quite a few, for us all to oooh and ahhh over, so cute! There were suitable classes for all to have a go including a fancy dress which was won by the very topical ‘Olympic Torch Bearers’. Jackie Larmer judged these classes with BIS going to Pam Wren’s Jack and BPIS to Sharon Barkley’s Brynn.

Whilst this was going on a timed Scurry took place, raffle, and guess the weight of the Treasurer’s Golden Retriever, and our ever present Club Supplies did good business. There was a display of photographs too, albums that Di Renny (our photographer extraordinaire) has been providing of our Shows for some time now, and current BIS pictures. Also two new albums one provided by Di with all the Champions owned by Club Members that she could locate photos of, and another provided by Julie Revill of old pictures of Club activities going back many many years which encouraged some laughter when noticing people looking very different, hairstyles, clothes and changed bodies from years gone by!!

Some hilarious doggy races took place and the day was completed with accolades going to various people who had shown great potential in the disciplines during the day. The Scurry being won by Julie Revill’s Tasha with a time of 10.8 seconds and her husband Peter managed to guess the exact weight of the Goldie correctly to win a cuddly toy!

Grateful thanks must go to all who made this day so successful, with particular thanks to our Catering Manager Pam Wren who never fails to give us all a good lunch, the committee who worked hard all day to ensure everything ran on time (ish) and of course last but certainly not least, our Chairman Stephen Pick who provided the venue and also managed to accommodate the Judge and her husband Hubert from Sweden over the weekend – we were all tired but very happy at the end of the two days, it all went well and the weather even cooperated, the marquee not being required this year, nice to have it though – just in case!

Julie Revill

Hon: Secretary

Thanks to Sharon Barkley for allowing me to ‘snitch’ some of this from her Breed Notes.