The Novice Field Trial held at Longleat, Wiltshire, by kind invitation of Horningsham Sporting Club and Mr K. Beddel’s Party of Guns, turned out to be about the best Novice Trial that the Judges had seen for a long time. The 15 dogs staying steady whilst the Guns shot a good number of pheasants and partridges, then handling extremely well to pick the difficult long retrieves set by the Judges, Alan Thornton, Gaynor Bailey, Basil Smith and Paul Truby.

The standard was really good, with dogs being sent a long way to pick a specific birds, in some cases being told that the Judges would accept any bird if two or three were rather close together. There is nothing worse than circus tricks where a handler is told “not that pheasant but the one a little further on”.  Anja Moeller had a horrid retrieve for her final one, a pheasant in nettles in the far corner of the field just on the edge of the wood. Until the dog was right on top of the bird he wasn’t going to wind it so it was a bit of a struggle but Gunsight’s Bracket eventually retrieved it by dint of some excellent handling by Anja.

It took 7 retrieves apiece before the  final 3 dogs were sorted out, a very close finish just giving the edge to James Bailey’s Mansengreen Fletcher (it was James’s first win), 2^nd Noel Bailey’s Craighorn Abby, 3^rd Kevin Carty’s Frostfield Bramble, 4^th Anya Moeller’s (from Germany) Gunsight’s Bracket. Certificates of Merit to Wayne Mitchell’s Minstead Wexford of Labdom, Jane Trowell’s Janfran Clementine and Judy Venables’s Kittsgate Jensen of Quardrum.  The Guns Choice was Gunsight’s Bracket, the Best Looking Dog was Kittsgate Jensen of Quardrum.