British Flyball Championships 2009

I headed up to Southam on Thursday very very excited about the weekend, set up camp before having a few quiet drinks with Mad Mutts and Hotshots.

Friday morning came and we were 1st in at 8.30am in division 32 with the Missiles. The team was Tyne, Sky, Chelsey, Fraggle, Molly and Guiness. With alot of our members including captain Lou not arriving until Saturday we were a little thin on the ground but we managed ok. The dogs had to run on a boomerang as our canam had packed up at Stockbridge, they all coped fine and Chelsey maintained her lovely turn. We were bottom seed so the aim was not to come bottom of the entire show! All the dogs ran really well and despite not having Jive managed to better their seed time by over half a second with quite a late start. We won 2 of our races and the others were close aswell. This put us 3rd overall so we were pleased with that result.

Friday night was neon night, so out came the leg warmers and glowsticks! I had a brilliant night raving in the marquee and then getting drunk with Katie, Kristian and Faye. I then went on for a few more drinks with Livvy and Craig and ended up going to bed around 5am!! Woo hardcore!

Saturday was a quiet day for us with no teams racing. I just milled around and watched racing, tried to keep my dogs occupied by taking them for little walks around by the ring. Bless Tess she was still going mental to get in and show the youngsters how its done! Saturday night was dress up night, I was brave and wore my little dress and partied hard! Katie deserted Owler camp to join us (me, Katie and Sam in he middle of the dance floor bouncing to BEPs was really something to be seen!), the music was fantastic and I loved every minute, still smile when one of the songs played that night comes on the radio! A few of my team then went to play the much talked of Sociables with Cheshire, my god that game is lethal! A certain member of my team got absolutely wasted! We had a wicked time and a slightly earlier night of 4am!

Sunday we had 2 teams racing. Rockets were 1st on in division 8. We knew we were going to be a bit up against it as the seed time we were on was the fastest we'd done all year and we were missing Bonnie the quickest dog on that team. The team was Lacy, Sonny, Smartie, Perry and Jamie. We lost the 1st 2 races in the morning as things didn't really gel and we were unlucky on 1 race where a ball rolled infront of Jamie just before he was released resulting in him getting that ball instead. The afternoon was alot better, we ran much better times (very low 19s) and won the 1st 2 races. The last race was against High Voltage who had managed a fantastic 18.20secs earlier on so we just went for it and weren't far behind even taking a leg off them. Despite winning 2 races we came 5th which gives you an idea of how close that division was with High Voltage being very worthy winners.

Ballistics were in Division 2 which I was very excited about. We were bottom seed on paper but as the seedings list had changed quite considerably since the running order had been done I knew that we had a chance (not that I told anyone else for fear of putting the pressure on lol!). First race was against Shooting Star Comets, we raced well and beat them 3-0 with a time of 17.8something. Next up was Cheshire Set, I knew this would be close and it was, it went to a 2-2 decider when fortunately for us they got a light although I think Bunty was back just ahead anyway. We ran 17.65secs. Next up was Wire Flash who again we beat quite well. In the afternoon, 1st up we had Mutts who again it was very close with, they beat us on the 1st leg then I got a light on the 2nd, luckily we pulled it back to 2-2 and they got lights on the last leg! Final race was against Rotherham who came out and beat us 3-0, I think they had a dog running who is taking a while to be reliable (Scooby?) and so they couldn't run him in every race and I think it was lucky for us that they couldn't! With Rotherham having lost 2 races previously that made us the division winners! I was so thrilled that after the disaster we had last year that we were able to make up for it and more, really was a very proud moment! Don't really want to think about negatives but I wasn't overly pleased with the way Asher ran, his box wasn't great and he wasn't really driving back the way i know he can. His box was probably due to it being a different box (we borrowed 1 from the bandits which I am very grateful for but probably did affect him a little bit). The only thing I can think of over his speed is that he wasn't feeling quite right, he did seem to have a bit of a dodgy tummy and the last couple of days he has been very quiet which is not like him. Luckily he seems brighter today. But anyway we won :-) :-) and I really am so so happy, going up and getting our plaque infront of the crowd was a great moment.

Division 1 was amazing to watch, Bassetts deserved the win, they really just looked like they were coasting for much of it and I'm sure they'll break the british record again in the near future. What really seems to set them apart is the amazing boxwork, it really does shave so much time off each dog and of course that cracking little dog that goes by the name of Lizzie who is pretty much unbeatable so huge congratulations to Bassetts. Also big well done to High Flyers who pushed them more than anyone else and stepped up their game from last year. They were gracious in defeat and I'm sure will be back fighting again next year.

I had the most fantastic weekend, I'm actually really sad it's all over. The atmosphere was brilliant, everyone was so friendly and the racing was all so close. Roll on next year.

Fairview Farm

Ok so this is over a week late, but as they say... better late than never! We had 3 teams in. Rockets ran Saturday.

Rockets were in Division 3. We had Bonnie, Lacy, Sonny, Perry and Jamie. Weather was a bit rubbish on the Saturday so it was a bit slippery. Bonnie was alot better on the box although still fumbling a bit, she was running around 4.2secs when her box was ok. Lacy was fab as usual, then I was running Perry and Carol was running Sonny as Louise was on holiday. We just swapped Perry and Sonny so as to keep the team fairly consistent with Jamie on the end. They ran really well and ended up winning all their races and therefore the division with a best time of 19.43secs.

Had a brilliant night Saturday, playing games with my team then after most of them went to bed we invaded the Mutts and then the few of us left standing invaded Lightning and somehow stayed up til gone 4.30am. Don't know where the time went! Was up again by half 8 and I swear I was still drunk! Had to go run a dog though!

Ballistics and Missiles raced Sunday. Missiles were on 1st and bottom seed by quite a margin. We decided to put Jive in this team to give them a little bit of speed. They still ended up coming last but did take a couple of races to 5 legs and raced quite consistently.

Ballistics were 5th seed in Division 1, we had Rosie back from her holidays so had a team of Diefer, Asher, Rosie, Smartie and Bunty. 1st race was against Barkshire Bandits, we went without Smartie, and proceeded to break our seed time 3 times in a row by doing 2 times in the 17.50s and then a 17.46secs! We won that 3-0 and it gave us a lot of confidence to go and face our next competitors... Shooting Stars. Ordinarily we would rest one of our faster dogs as we wouldn't think we had a chance of beating them on time but now we decided to were gonna go for it! We rested Smartie again, went in and did a 17.42, then a faster time than I could of dreamt of for this year 17.37secs!!! Stars got lights on both of these legs so we were 2-0 up. 3rd leg was sooo close, no lights, they did 17.55, we did 17.52... Omg we'd just beaten Shooting Stars! That was it for the morning, in the afternoon, 1st race was against Maples which is nearly always eventful! We went 2-0 up, the 1st one they got a light then the next we beat them on speed. 3rd leg, Diefer came really wide off the box and ran out so 2-1, then we were late on our changes so 2-2. Last leg there was a lot of pressure but we held it together and won it! Then we also beat Shooting Star Comets. Last race all went a bit pear shaped against Hampshire but we'd won 4 out of 5 and won Division 1!!

I can't remember the last time we won Div 1, it was literally years ago. I had a goal for this year which I set back in January that was for ballistics to go sub 17.50secs, i thought after the way some of the comps had gone this year and after it taking so long to come together that this aim was a bit unrealistic so I am so thrilled that we beat it by over a 10th of a sec and hopefully we can go a little bit quicker! It's funny how everything happens for a reason, and how an unplanned chain of events can lead you to success. E.g. If it hadn't been for June (with Rosie) and Lou and Bobbie being on hols at Becketts Farm then Smartie never would of been in the 1st team. Smartie can't change to Diefer cuz she loves him so much she nips him on her outrun so Asher had to go 2nd. If it hadn't been for this we wouldn't of realised how much better Angie with Buntys changeovers would be to a slightly slower dog. We also wouldn't have known how much better Diefer would be with Asher running to him. He was back hitting 4.1s at Stockbridge which he hasn't really done all year and we believe it is because although Asher is fast he is also very inoffensive and non-confrontational unlike the other bossy bitches in the team! So from Frimley to Stockbridge just swapping Rosie and Asher round improved the time by half a second! Obviously some of this has got to be improved racing fitness but it really makes you think!

So yeh bring on the Champs! Can. Not. Wait.

Video from Chilterns

Well I was browsing You Tube and came across this video of the Barkshire Bandits from Chilterns and we just happen to be racing them in the 2nd and 3rd clips! We are in blue lane, Asher is 2nd dog. I think this was our 5th race of the day.

Chilterns Show

We had 3 teams in at the Chilterns show. Ballistics were 6th seed (out of 7) on the Saturday. The team was Diefer, Asher, Smartie and Bunty. Seedings were all really close apart from top seeds High Flyers being about half a sec quicker than everyone else so we expected some close racing and it didn't disappoint! First race was against Maples who had a whole new line up, they did beat us 3-0 but it was closer than the score suggests and we did another 17.72secs! Next race against High Flyers we did a 17.71secs so another fastest ever time!! We lost but again it was close and we took a leg! Next we were against Molten Magnetics, another really close race and had our changes been bang on we could of won it! So not a very successful morning in terms of wins but we ran really well. In the afternoon things picked up and we won all 3 of our races against the Bandits, Mutts and newly formed Lightning Strikes. This put us a respectable 4th. Asher ran really well, was so pleased with his box as it looked really consistent and he was running on to it rather than sliding. I think the pic shows it pretty well :-), hopefully it will stay like this now! Still a little bit of work to do but I think we're nearly there!

Rockets ran Sunday in Division 2, the team was Bonnie, Lacy, Sonny and Jamie. We went in to racing with the intention of bettering our seed time to ensure that this team ran on the Sunday at Champs, this is very important as Lou and Bobbie will only be at the Champs from Saturday night and there dogs make up atleast half the team! The team ran really well apart from we had some problems with Bonnie fumbling the ball, she needs constant reminding of her box turn as she is so nutty, she did gradually improve over the day though. I've included a couple of photos of Lacy on the box as she is my star pupil from box training over winter! As you can see from the two pics that she is consistent in her position, I like the 2nd pic as she is turning at the same time as her older lilac brother Logan :-)! Her turn is exceptionally quick and consistent (despite her foot placement not been technically perfect) which makes her like the easiest dog to change on ever! The team won 4 out of the 6 races. They lost 1 on speed against the division winners maple leaf raggers and 1 by getting 3 lights against a team they didn't really need to. They still managed to finish 2nd with a new best time of 18.89secs! We are now praying that that time will get us Sunday at Champs.

Missiles also ran Sunday, unfortunately one of our team pulled out who owns 3 of the usual missile dogs so we were left with 4 dogs in a very mixed team! The team was Jive, Perry, Fraggle and Molly. Fraggle has been getting better and better recently but for some reason in the 1st couple of races he didn't really want to play (he must have sensed we only had 4 dogs!). Luckily by the 3rd race he got a lot better and we actually managed to complete! In the afternoon, we had quite an audience around the ring and Fraggle decided to show off resulting in us winning a couple of legs and a race going to 2-2 only for Fraggle to go and make friends with a retriever right by the fence next to the box on the last leg, how annoying lol! We came last but I don't think I've ever heard such big cheers for a dog as there were for Fraggle, he certainly held everyones attention!

Becketts Farm = 17.72 :-) :-)

Well we very nervously went up to Beckett's Farm as we had been left to fly solo without our team captain! We had 2 teams in, the Ballistics and Missiles as without Bobbie and Louise basically the whole Rockets team was missing!

Missiles ran Saturday and were Tyne, Sky, Chelsey, Fraggle and Guiness. Had a bit of a nightmare start to the day when the lights decided they weren't going to work and we had to go with hand timing! The weather was pretty rubbish but this helped a couple of our dogs who suffer with the heat. I ran Chelsey the Lab, god she's a very strong dog! The four big dogs ran a lot better than they had been previously but we had to be a bit careful on changes with it being judged by eye and Guiness really wasn't up for running, she was on a bit of a go slow. They managed a best time of 27.something and finished last but they had some closer racing than they've had recently and noone messed about or ran out so atleast that was an improvement :-s!

Saturday evening we had a few drinks to celebrate my birthday, I got horrendously drunk and was just chatting nonsense but apparently I was quite entertaining so atleast I was useful! Luckily I'm still just about young enough not to suffer from bad hangovers so although I didn't quite make it to ring party 1st thing in the morning I was fine by the time Div 1 was due to start!

Ballistics were 4th seed in Division 1, we were missing Rosie but still had a strong team of Diefer, Lacy, Asher, Smartie and Bunty. We knew it was going to be an exciting division with Bassetts, Flyers and Moltens all pushing for times. 1st race was against molten meteors, we went with what we thought would be our fastest combo of Diefer, Lacy, Asher and Bunty. We got a light on the 1st leg and then 2nd leg we won with 17.84secs! We then lost a leg as they did an 18.02 and we were very slightly behind, next leg we won with another sub 18 but unfortunately on the last leg we got a light! Next race was against Flyers, we went with Smartie instead of Lacy. We were really winding our dogs up as we have a friendly rivalry with the Flyers and although they were much faster than us they got 3 lights in a row so we won with a best time of 17.81secs!! We then watched as Flyers went in and broke the 17sec barrier by doing 16.91secs!! Go Flyers! Our next race was against Bassetts who we knew we couldn't beat on speed so we rested Asher, we did take a leg off them when they got a light so all in all we were pleased with the morning racing. 1st race in the afternoon was against northants falcons who had done a 17.88secs in the morning so we knew it would be very close. 1st leg we both got lights, luckily i have an instant rerun on Asher so we won that 1, the next 2 legs we were very slightly behind so swapped Lacy for Smartie and managed to win the race! Last race was against molten magnets, we didn't think we could beat them on speed so decided to rest Diefer however we were only just behind them so after 2 legs we swapped diefer back in and raced a 17.72secs winning the leg and getting our fastest EVER time! Last leg we couldn't quite repeat that speed but it was still really close and we only just lost. Came out of the ring and got ourselves in position ready to watch the British Record broken, go Bassetts... 16.70secs and I'm sure they've still got more to give, it was amazing to watch! We managed to come 3rd with some of the best racing I've taken part in for ages!

Think we've learnt from the weekend that Asher should really go 2nd, he used to be a bit scared of changeovers with big dogs but he's fine now and it does help him giving us that lead early on. Angie with Bunty also struggles to change with him as she literally has to let go of Bunty as he's coming off the box so she found it much easier changing to Smartie resulting in Bunty running much better times. And well Smartie, she was on fire, must of known she was up in the big league so her promotion has remained for Chilterns this weekend. Will be interesting to see what we can do!

One Whole Year!

Just a super quick post as it is exactly a yr since I started this blog! It is also my birthday :-)! Ahhh 22, so old! Anyways I'm off to Becketts Farm now so I shall update properly when I get back!

Frimley = 17.84 :-)

Just had a scorcher of a weekend in Frimley, I have a lovely tan! We had 3 teams in, Ballistics and Rockets Saturday and Missiles Sunday.

1st up Rockets were in Division 3, the team was Lacy, Smartie, Perry, Jamie and Jive. In the morning we won 1 and lost 1. We lost against racing herts who did there fastest ever time, Lacy was racing against her mother and sister in that team (she is an elthea)! In the afternoon we went out hoping to win 1 out of the 3 races as the other 2 teams were running under 19secs, fortunately our luck had changed this weekend and we managed to win all 3 races due to them getting lights so we finished 2nd. Our best time was 19.46secs. We had the lights with the timer that shows for each dog which I think is fantastic as it gives you an accurate picture of a dogs times throughout the day. We recorded all of these, I don't have them but from memory... Lacy was running consistent low 4.3secs all day, its so good to see how shes come on as at her 1st show she was running 4.6s. Her box was also fab, 4 feet consistently, I take responsibility haha! Also think she loved running start, although she can forget that as we already have enough start dogs lol! Smartie was also on form running 4.4-4.5secs and again very consistent. Perry suffered with the heat (he is a massive black, hairy dog!) and was running around 5.1-5.2 (he is usually 4.9-5s). Jamie also suffered as he really gives it his all and was around 5.2-5.4s. Jive ran a few legs to give Perry a rest and did really well running around the 5sec mark and that is only going from 20ft.

Ballistics were next on in Div 2, makes a change to be in div 2 and we were only 3rd seed on 18.14secs!! We decided to really go for it on the 1st race and see what we could do, we had arguably our strongest team lineup of Diefer, Rosie, Asher, Bunty (Sonny as 5th dog). 1st leg we did 18.05secs with slightly late changes, 2nd leg we held back a bit as the other team got a light, 3rd leg really seemed to flow and felt so good, waited for the time to come up... 17.84secs!!! Ahhh we were sooo happy and Bunty still had a bit on her change! Next race we had Sonny in instead of Rosie, we won that 3-0 with a best time of 18.32secs. In the afternoon things didn't go so well. Rosie had not been well the previous night after stealing and eating liquorice allsorts! By the afternoon that combined with the heat caught up with her and she was exhausted, this resulted in me getting lights in the 1st 1 legs of the 1st race, we brought it back to 2-2 but the re-running of Asher had caused Bunty to spook and she ran out on the last leg. June decided to rest Rosie after that as she could tell she wasn't right, i'm sure she'll be fine by the weekend. We won the next race without too much drama but it wasn't as smooth as the morning. The last race we couldn't lose (nfc) but did our best to when our box literally fell apart (well the whole ball mechanism came out of Asher's hole) and we had to run the last leg of the day on a boomerang! Luckily for us the team we lost against had only won 3 races so we won the division! I was so pleased with Asher he was consistently under 4 all day and not just by a little bit, many of his runs were 3.8secs, quite a few 3.9s and a couple of 4-4.1 when i was significantly late on my changes. Diefer ran 4.3secs, Rosie 4.3-4.4, Sonny around 4.6 (bit of room on changes) and Bunty around 5-5.2secs.

Missiles were in Div 8 on Sunday and all of these dogs really suffered in the heat. It was a difficult day for them, on a positive Fraggle was fab and ran really well. And yeh thats all I'm gonna say!

Unfortunately I'm missing Millets Farm next weekend :-( as I'm going to see Take That Saturday night :-D, my next one will be Becketts Farm when it will be my Birthday celebrations!!