2006 News

Spring Report

The winter months unfortunately are never very busy, hence a not so large issue of the newsletter. The good news is that the next few months are very busy for the group, so here’s hoping for a bumper edition next time.

We have done a few winter walks through the ‘cold’ season, I’m not sure what Rob & I would do through the winter months without these to keep us going!! One walk was particularly memorable when we had to ‘rescue’ Odin, all that chasing of female dogs made him exhausted. Glad to say he recovered but to stop him doing it again John now has to keep him on a lead! It’s always hard to keep on top of things at home through the summer with everything that we do with the dogs, water training, events and displays etc but oh how I miss doing all that during the bleak months.

It was good to start water training again a few weeks ago, albeit a tad cold but after months last year of no training venue nothing was going to stop some of us ‘madder’ ones from taking a dip with our dogs. Sincere thanks and well done must go to Kev for all his hard work in finding and securing us our new venue.

Here’s hoping we all have a good time over the next few months with so much planned, water tests, displays, water training and trips away.

Sue Scott

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Cuckfield Camping Weekend Bat & Ball – Friday 26th/29th May

Friday 26th May we arrived at the Bat & Ball for another great camping weekend. After having consumed rather too much alcohol (some of us anyway!!!) we all had an early night. Saturday we went to Egham for a nice swim and although we had some drizzly rain this didn’t seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the children. It was great to see them handling their own Newfs as well as other peoples. I was very impressed with Emily’s handling of Bronte, who is to say the least very keen. The swimming helped some of us sober up a little before the evening session.

Sunday was a little more relaxed with a pub lunch and the all important practise session for the carting demo for Cuckfield show. The Cuckfield show saw a good turn out and although we had a few showers we still managed to raise £90.00 with only six dogs carting. Some group members took part in the dog show and did very well winning a number of rosettes. These were Rob, Angie, Debbie & Wendy.

All in all it was a very good weekend and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Thank you to all those who contributed and made this possible.

Wendy Adcock

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Stewards’ Training Weekend – Tredegar 20th & 21st May 2006

I would like to thank Keith, Nick, Mark and Steve for giving up their weekend to help me run the stewards’ training day. The weekend would not have been so successful without the benefit of their help and experience.

It was Thursday evening (all a bit last minute!!) when I finally finished the delegate packs which contained the classroom presentation, test regulations and some examples of Horsham Newfs documents. On Friday we all set off for a weekend in the welsh mountains; they say it always rains in Wales and they’re right! It rained almost continuously from the moment we arrived until we crossed the Severn Bridge back into England on Sunday. However this did not dampen people’s enthusiasm to learn and participate.

In view of the weather conditions the majority of training took place on Saturday starting with a classroom presentation and a demo of safety equipment. The practical sessions were full of incidents (the majority of which were planned!) to keep all those budding stewards on their toes. Mark’s falling from the boat was so realistic during the first exercise that even the trainers thought it was for real! Boat handling and general stewarding were covered and the feedback has been excellent including requests for other sessions closer to home. If anyone in the group would like a copy of the pack, let me know and I will print one off for you.

Thanks again to the members of Horsham Newfs, Fi Lucas, Clive Haylock and Keith Sargeant for all their help and the WNAG for hosting the event and making us so welcome.

Kevin Mercer

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Longside Lake Egham 6th May 2006

This was the first time this venue had been used for tests and everything went very well.

The weather was very kind to us, bright and warm in the morning and just giving way to light showers in the afternoon, thankfully it didn’t come down too hard and nobody had to move vehicles to safety.

The day went very well, everyone knew what to do from arriving at the lake and setting up to packing up and leaving so thank you to all at Horsham Newfs for making my day very easy indeed. Keith Leybourne and Mark Kingsley did a great job sorting out the stewards for the day, even though Mark had no idea that he had to do this, and tried to pass on the job. Thanks you to all of you who stewarded. Special thanks must go to Sandra Constable, Clive Haylock and Keith Sargeant for stewarding for us I have sent them thank you letters.

Toilet facilities were kindly provided by Keith Leybourne, thank you very much, decent bushes would have been hard to find with so many people around.

Thanks to Angie for coping admirably with the paperwork on the day even though in the afternoon score sheets were being returned to her very damp indeed and thanks Sue for keeping everyone supplied with teas, coffees and soup all day, soup was great.

The children were a godsend with gate duties, running back and forth with the key to let people in and out well done all of you.

There were no dramas and no problems so I think we can all give ourselves a pat on the back for tests well run.

Debi Hawkins