If I'm being completely honest in the lead up to the champs due to several different factors I really wasn't feeling it and didn't really want to go. I won't go in to reasons but I hated feeling like that and hopefully next year will be a different story!
We had a dog go sick on Extraset which meant a shift around of the other teams leaving us with just 4 dogs on the top 3 teams and 6 on the 4th team (they have to be run with these dogs as there is a bit of a gulf between them and the other teams and not all of them can run all day).
Missiles ran Saturday in division 36 but were pretty outclassed for time as they were seeded on a fluke time that we knew they wouldn't hit again. They did have some close racing and the dogs ran well but unfortunately they came 6th.
Extraset ran Saturday as Sonny, Perry, Elliot and Jamie in division 18. I had the pleasure of running Jamie again which I thoroughly enjoyed even if I did have to do alot of running! Every single race went to the wire and it was really exciting. We came 3rd with 20.02secs.
Sunday started with a bit of a nightmare when Bobbie fell out the caravan and hurt her wrist (later found out to be broken) and couldn't run Diefer (who we had stole as his owners were on holiday). So Rockets had an eventful start! The team was Diefer, Smartie, Rosie and Bunty. This again was a very tight division and we possibly could of won it if it weren't for a few unnecessary lights and a certain height dog running out on her way up despite changing on a dog that she's used to changing with! Anyway, the team managed 3rd with a time of 18.83secs and I got to run Diefer for a bit aswell which was great!
Ballistics were moved up to division 1 at very late notice and whilst I was very very excited I was also very nervous. We had a team of Piper, Luna, Lacy and Asher. After Luna's lane crossing at Stockbridge we thought putting her in the pack would keep her attention on her own team and as a team we decided if it all went t**s up we would just put her anchor and hold back so as to not put off any of the other teams dogs. Our 1st race was in blue lane (our good lane) against top seeds Live Wires, who to be honest just underestimated us. On the 1st leg they got a light, next leg I think they were a bit cautious on changes and we were going for it! Asher decided he wasn't going to be beaten! Last leg they swapped dogs but Asher was high on the atmosphere and pulled it out of the bag to catch up a couple of jumps deficit to get us the win 3-0 with our fastest ever time of 17.30secs. Next race in red against bassetts our fears were confirmed, 1st leg Luna went flying in to their runback area, tried it once more with a slightly different approach from the catch team but to no avail so we went to plan b and put her last and held her back. Gutting but we felt ok knowing we were doing the right thing, we did the same for next race against High Flyers. In the afternoon our 1st race was against Shooting Stars back in blue. We wanted to win this 1 as we thought it would be the only other race we stood a chance in. It followed pretty much the same pattern as Live Wires. Asher was thriving on running anchor in that environment and his foot speed was awesome (shame about him blowing his boxturn lol), no idea what times he was running but he felt amazing. 1st leg they got a light, 2nd 2 legs Asher just kept bringing it back! We did another fastest ever time of 17.18secs! Last race against Extreme we were in red so we held back 1st 2 legs but we could hear the whole crowd shouting for us to go for it so with now even more nerves we did! And Luna did it, she didn't run across, we won the 3rd leg to take it to 2-1 but on the last leg we weren't together enough to bring it back and lost 3-1. Overall we came 5th which all things considered was bloody amazing! The atmosphere was fantastic and we are so grateful for the support we received both in and out of the ring. Belated huge congratulations to Bassetts who raced brilliantly to win all their races and hold on to their title. There are some great photos of the team and some of the other div 1 teams on:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kayanem/sets/72157624736312730/
and
www.photoboxgallery.com/flyballfever on the experimental div 1 photos bit :-) inc my favourite ever photo which I really hope David Flood doesn't mind me posting...
So that was Champs 2010, ups and downs and just about every emotion inbetween. Would love to be a part of div 1 again next year but we'll have to keep getting better as I think the competition will be even tougher.
5 comments:
At last!!!! Was worth the wait though ;) xxx
Asher was absolutely awesome at the champs. I was sitting next to some of the Live Wires teams members and they could not believe how fast he was and tbh (you perfectionist) his box turn was pretty fab too. You did the right thing and you should be so proud of yourselves you were amazing I can't wait until next year when you are there again, where you deserve to be xx p's' Barley says hi to her bofriend ;)
Thankyou Sarah, that comment really made me smile :-) I'm so proud of him and the rest of the team! xxxxxx
PS Asher says hi back and says to tell her that he wants to see her doing flyball next year :-) xxx
Crikey, sounds eventful. I'll look out for the 2011 champs as this years looks great!
Jason from Dog Beds
Look, I didn't mean to stand on his foot. He is very fast and I'm .... well not. Sorry!
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