Herts, Beds & Bucks Branch hosted the finals which were held on
14th June 2009, at Toddington Manor, Bedfordshire, by kind
permission of Sir Neville and Lady Bowman-Shaw. The judges were
Vincent Mitchell and Peter Scott.

This is a splendid ground and the keeper, Tim Potter and farm
manager, Andrew Robinson made us most welcome and were
extremely helpful.

Jim Gale and Vince Mitchell had set four tests for the morning, all
involving two retrieves, one of which was a mark and the other
blind. Good use was made of the lake, the woodland, the open
countryside and the undulating fields.

Competitors ran individually for the morning but in the afternoon
each branch competed as a team. A mock drive was held with four
marks being thrown in a sloping field. Four blinds were placed at
the edge of some woodland which bordered the field and each
team member had to nominate which dummy they were going to
retrieve both for marks and blinds.

The final marks for the teams were extremely close and at the end
of the day Andrew Robinson presented the Halday Cup to the
winners together with vouchers kindly donated by Skinners Dog
Foods.

1st – Kent and East Sussex Branch 309pts

2nd – Eastern Counties Branch 305pts
3rd – Surrey, West Sussex and Hampshire Branch 302 pts
4th – Herts, Beds & Bucks Branch 297pts

The top dog and winner of the Westernash Trophy which was
presented by Mary Darton was Martin Bagg’s Labrador bitch
Collaroybanks Holly.

A big thank you to all those members who help on the day – I
didn’t have to phone round and ask anyone as they all volunteered.
Such a treat and they were all so good, especially at throwing
dummies! Also to all those who kindly donated raffle prizes and to
Skinners for their generous donation of dog food vouchers.

The Kent and East Sussex Team with the Judges