Kent and East Sussex

The John Croucher Memorial Trophy was created in memory of John Croucher who had been a great Stalwart of the club. For many years John helped out at every training session and test throwing dummies, rarely running his own dog in order to help. He also took some of the training sessions when necessary. He was a tremendous supporter of the club so when he passed away the club created a memorial trophy in his name.

This trophy is awarded to repay the support from the most helpful non committee member during the previous working test season who has helped either at the working tests or behind the scenes.

This year the award  has been given to Jane Gray who has helped out at most of our working tests this season. Jane is usually one of the first to arrive on a test morning, even if she is competing as well, and been a tremendous asset to the team helping with the set up and making sure everyone gets a cup of tea and a bacon roll, which is most important. Jane also offers her support to other clubs so we really appreciate the time she gives up for us.

A walked up on FT Lines was our last test of the season. It was held at a new ground Haxted farm nr Edenbridge by kind permission of David Spratt. Despite the threat of thunder storms all day we dodged the bullet and stayed dry.

The day ran well under the control of our line man Kelvin Nettleingham and our stewards Marianne Copp, Hayley Mack and Sophie Mills.

After 4 rounds our wonderful judges;

Roger Wade, Chris Marshall, Reuben Corbett and James Brindley awarded –

1st place – Gwidigada Ivy handled by Jennifer Thomas
2nd – Tildaross Byron handled by Chris Johnson
3rd – Laborie Miss Molly handled by Julia Smith
COMMS were awarded to 4 dogs:
Anningtonbay Enchilida handled by Mell Brooks
Birdsholding Inkerman handled by Sophie Adshead
Holmside Goose at Sunshimmer handled by Jennie Knight
Nevilldown Jellybean handled by Sarah Nickels-Hawkins

A huge thanks to all our helpers today and our sponsor Skinners and Gamekeepers goods.

UGS K&ES held their Open and Novice water tests at the beautiful Isenhurst Estate by kind permission of Clive and Gilly Nickols. Both classes were well supported and the judges set some excellent tests, relatively straight forward but with some interesting bunkers to catch dogs and handlers out. The weather held out for most of the day and thankfully the downpour was over by the time everyone got back to the lodge. There was an Open and a Novice class but we also held a Young Handler class for a lovely little lady called Daisy, who is only just 8 years old. Daisy had been asking her Mummy if she could enter a class with their young dog so we agreed to let her have a go. Daisy had been practicing very hard in the lead up to the test which clearly paid off as she scored a total of 74 out of 80 in a simplified version of the Novice test earning herself a Young Handler award certificate and a rosette. Well done Daisy Farley, you were a little star ️

Novice Test:

1st Place and the Dawson Hart Trophy – Culpepper Maybold handled by Jane Gray

2nd Place and the Forest Trophy – Braltontwist Pumpkin handled by Chrissie Walton.

After a run off,

3rd Place – Oakhorn Thiago handled by Victoria Ellis.

4th Place – Lovatnoir Lanner Falcon handled by Jacqueline Mason

COM – Bellesbank Gravity handled by Hannah Collyer.

Open Test:

1st Place and the Hatchfield Trophy – Welige Lady Sybil of Wight handled by Bryony Hamilton.
2nd Place and The Forest Trophy – Tullysedge Incas Gold handled by Sue Jordan.
3rd Place – Highholts KitKat – handled by Sue Convery.
4th Place – Flaxenfox Shumba handled by Barry Harvey
COM – Rossclyde Highland Mist at Rotherburn handled by Sarah Burnell

Young Handler – Cwnddraig Olive at Daisycreek – Handled by Daisy Farley.

A big thank you as always to our wonderful judges; Louie Robertson, Kate Bollen, Belinda Welbourn and Jo Voke and to all you fabulous helpers who stepped up to the plate to help. Andy, Carole, Heather, Stuart, Lauren, Fiona M, Fiona S, Sabine, Jane, Alice Janet, Jeanette, Ian, Jane and my brilliant team from UGS K&ES.

Thank you also to Skinners for their ongoing sponsorship and to Sporting Saint who provided a wonderful goody bag for Daisy.

Having won the Interclub team match in 2022 it was the turn of UGS K&ES to host it in 2023 at Brissenden Farm, Frttenden, Kent by kind permission of Dick Munton and his team who run the farm.

15 teams of 3 dogs & handlers ( Open, Novice and ND/NH) competed over 5 tests for the Arun & Downland Challenge Shield under the watchful eyes of our 5 wonderful judges John Stubbs, Colin Pelham, Alan Buckland, Kim Jinks and Kelvin Nettleingham.

After the tests were over everyone was invited to partake of a hog roast provided by Tim Bartleet from Blue Egg Catering followed by Strawberries and cream ( and a sneaky glass of Pimms!) whilst we added up all the scores.

We also held a charity raffle throughout the day for the PSP Association which raised a fantastic £635. Thanks go to all the competitors who generously supported this charity and to the many wonderful sponsors who donated a selection of fabulous prizes.

The weather Gods were good to us and, despite the forecast threatening thunderstorms, they held them off until the very end of our day just as people were leaving, allowing us to enjoy a relaxing lunch.

Thanks go to our wonderful team of helpers who gave up their valuable time to make events like this possible.

I would also like to acknowledge to generosity of our sponsors who contributed to Goody bags for all competitors and some amazing raffle prizes: Skinners, Sporting Saint, Acme Whistles, Gamekeepers Goods, Hecktorkirk Gundogs, Chris Potter Country Stores, RJS Gundog training, Diana Stevens & Stephen Malthouse, Biddenden Vineyard, Bill Gardiner, Loddington Farm, Ashdown Feeds and Brown Bag crisps.

Results:

2 teams tied for first place so rather than have a run off (by which time most people were full of hog roast and strawberries!) we decided to differentiate the teams according to who’s ND/NH dog had the highest score, therefore..

1st Place and the A&D Challenge Shield – Utility Gundog Society Surrey, West Sussex and Hampshire

Sarah Haskoll – Folkington Flyte – ND/NH
Sue Convery – Highholts Kitkat – Novice.
Robert Small – Troddenmills If Only – Open

2nd Place – United Retriever Club, South West & Hampshire

Lee Dunn – Bradley Green Eclipse Sue – ND/NH
Emma Mills – Oaklyfield Nugget – Novice
Mark Witham – Ettinsmoor Final Frontier – Open

3rd Place – South Eastern Gundog Society

Peter Aston – Larinco Calypso Spark – ND/NH
Bill Gardiner – Hazel of Cacklebury – Novice
Julia Smith – Laborie Miss Molly – Open

Top ND/NH – Peter Aston

Top Novice – Emma Mills

Top Open – Mark Witham

Judges Choice winning the Chris Potter Trophy – Peter Aston

We held our mixed test  of Special puppy, Veteran and ND/NH at Covers Pit, Westerham by kind permission of Kelvin Nettleingham. Covers Pit is a fabulous location offering a huge diversity of natural terrain so tests options are endless.

The judges set some challenging tests with each one tweaked to take account of the different classes.

With 40 competitors it was a long day but the sun came out in the afternoon which was a bonus.

Special thanks to our 4 wonderful judges Helena Sully, Kelvin Nettleingham, Mandy Smith & Carly Madgwick who took time to give feedback to the competitors and a huge thank you to our helpers who had a long day. As we all know, helpers are invaluable to the running of tests.

SPECIAL PUPPY

1st place – Stubbledown Trophy- Karen Handley with Movenne Acorn at Peterspond
2nd place- Shepedor Trophy- Helen Burnie with Drumtochty Brodie of Copperburn
Comm- Brian West with Kenzduo Erinus

VETERAN

1st place- The Wadeshot Salver- Barbara Pettet with Higgscroft Firestar
2nd place – Chris Johnson with Tildaross Byron
3rd place – Sophie Mills with Turnerbrook Princess

ND/NH

1st place – The Luddesdown Trophy- Hannah Collyer with Bellesbank Gravity
2nd place – Linda Saunders with Rossclyde Vital Spark
3rd place – Lee Dunn with Bradley Green Eclipse Sue
Comm – Bonnie Drysdale with Red Hot Wasabi
Comm – Toby D’ Abreo with Bellesbank Seattle Grace

Well done to everyone!

Despite some horrendous weather conditions during the past week, the Gods were on our side today to enable us to hold the UGS K&ES Interbranch Open Qualifier test at Penshurst Place Estate.

The grounds were waterlogged in places and we had to re-arrange a couple of tests at the last minute but we successfully got through 6 tests.

The grounds offered by the kind permission of Viscount De L’isle & the keeper Kevin Lickton created a variety of test scenarios.

Thank you to our judges for the day, Diana Harrison, Graham Stanley, Marianne Copp and Tracy Flood and to our wonderful helpers, for giving up your valuable time to support us all.

The top four competitors will represent UGS Kent and East Sussex in the Interbranch final to be held in June.

1st Place, winning the Stubbledown Trophy, Kerrabrah Nelly handled by Jan Abrahams
2nd Place, and the Ghilliedown Trophy, Drakeshead Ellis handled by Josefine Van der Dussen
3rd Place, Buryhill Back to Black handled by Ian Hamilton
4th Place, Rookhollow Dahlia handled by Beth Morgan
Joint 5th and 1 point behind the awards
Comm, Ringbar Flint handled by Manfred Abraham
Comm, Abney Infinity handled by Beth Morgan

Once again a huge thank you to all the helpers who turned up this morning despite fully expecting to get drenched. without helpers we cannot run tests.

Thank you also to all the competitors who were very patient at the start whilst we rearranged a few things around for the safety of everyone and especially our wonderful dogs