Stockbridge - 2nd weekend

Unfortunately due to recently starting a new job I didn't stay the whole week at Stockbridge. I returned on Wednesday evening in time for Curry night, yum! We then had entertainment Thursday night which was awesome!

We knew we had a hard time trying to match the previous weekends results. We had Piper and Bonnie back so were able to put in the 4 teams. Rockets (Diefer, Merlin, Bonnie, Loki) managed a best ever time of 17.79secs and came 3rd. Diefer ran well, katie had been pestering her mum to run him back to a 2nd ball which really made a difference and he ran quite a few 4.3s. Good old extraset who we expected to struggle without Jemma or Merlin came 2nd with a best time of 19.68secs. Missiles also managed 2nd with a best time of 24.64secs.

Ballistics (Piper, Asher, Shani, Lacy, Luna) had a tough day. Asher had been fine all week and had done some runs the day before to work on box and stuff but when it came to racing he seemed ok in the warm up and 1st leg but then dropped drastically down to 4.3. We did 16.71 despite this (honestly think the world is against us doing any superfast times!), he then sat out the next race and I tried him in the final race of the morning but he still didn't seem right so I pulled him out for the rest of the day. I wondered if maybe I had overworked him the day before and felt mega guilty especially with the Champs a week away. The rest of the team had a thrilling 5legger last race against Stars but they just had us by a nose so we ended up 2nd. On the plus side Piper hit his 1st sub 4s by doing 3.94 twice, a 3.96 and a 3.98 :)

Stockbridge - 1st weekend

This was so long ago now, I remember very little. We were missing a few dogs so didn't have Rockets in. Merlin went in to Extraset and ran a PB of 4.35secs over 9" and then ran 4.38secs 3times in a row in the last race, clever spanner. Sonny also started to come in to his own and ran pretty consistent 4.4s. This contributed to Extraset coming 1st with a best ever of 18.74secs.

Diefer and Loki went in to Ballistics with Asher, Shani, Lacy and Luna. I couldn't get there until just after 9am due to being at work so missed the 1st race against Essex which we unfortunately lost. We got there in time for 2nd race where we got our act together and did 16.66. We won all our races after that including a very close last race against Stars to come 1st.

Missiles also had a great day winning all their races to come 1st so we had a clean sweep :)

Trying to Catch Up... Newlands Farm 23/24th July

Oh dear, I've got really behind!

Well, at Newlands farm we only had 2 teams as we were missing the Missiles and most of the 1st team. Rockets were Saturday and Extraset were Sunday. I went Saturday to run Elliot with Diefer, Merlin and Loki. The dogs all ran really well together and despite the ground not looking like it would run fast we managed to better our seed time to 17.91secs. I don't really remember much else about the day, other than we won all our races and therefore won the division :).

I missed Extraset (Sonny, Perry, Smartie, Jamie) running Sunday but apparently the dogs raced well, they just found it a little tough without having Jemma and came 5th.

Wow that was pretty brief for me!

Kilnsea Event Field, Reading

We had all 4 teams in again this weekend. Missiles were Saturday but me and Sarah just went for the day Sunday so didn't get to see them run. They did well to come 3rd.

On Sunday we had Ballistics 1st in as 3rd seed in division 1. The team was the usual of Piper, Asher, Shani, Lacy, Luna. Our 1st race was against Bassetts so we went without Lacy. Despite the weather and ground conditions not being good, Asher ran better than he did last weekend. We gelled quite well together but as Bassetts got lights we were holding back on last dog. On 1 of the runs the 1st three dogs did 12.17secs (pretty good, once asher is back up to speed we are hoping sub 12 ;)) but Carol had a little blonde moment and forgot to let go of Luna! Oopsy! Luna doing under 4.25 would of broken the British record and as you dedicated readers will know, she has done a 4.08 this year so this is all very exciting! We ended up having a best time of 17.13 in that race, ohhh dear! Asher sat out the other race of the morning and the team managed 16.94secs. In the afternoon, I just ran Asher against High Flyers (our other main competition). He again was much better and managed a 3.87secs in the 1st leg and consistent low 3.9s after that which is a definite improvement but still not really my boy. Must keep working on the leg! We sat Piper out of that race so it wasn't quite a full strength team, we ran well, I think the word of the day was 'slick' and won with a best time of 16.70secs. The rest of the team did the biz in the other 2 races which meant we won the division :)!

Next we had both Rockets (2nd seed) and Extraset (6th seed) in division 2. Rockets were Diefer, Merlin, Elliot, Bonnie and Loki. They yet again seemed to gel really well and run consistent times including 2 times sub 18 (with different line ups) of 17.98 and 17.93secs. That is a new best ever time for Rockets! It was all going great until the last race when it all fell apart and they lost which meant they finished 2nd! Loki was fantastic and ran a best ever time of 4.06secs, clever boy! Extraset were Jemma, Perry, Sonny, Smartie and Jamie. We thought they were going to have it really tough but they raced consistently great and got a bit lucky in a couple of races. They ended up coming 3rd with a best time of 19.01secs. If Rockets had won their last race against Hampshire, Rockets would of been 1st and Extraset 2nd! Jemma had to do lots of racing due to lots of false starts but she also managed to do a best ever time of 4.38secs :).

Overall a successful day, and wow how glad am I that I was able to bring Asher back to racing when I did. With 2 more teams going sub 17 with times of 16.74 and 16.80 this weekend, 16.85 just wouldn't of cut it to get us div 1 at the Champs! It just seems crazy as we were bottom seed div 1 at the Champs last year on 17.38secs. Now there will be atleast 2 teams sub 17 in div 2 this year!

Barbury Castle AKA Birthday weekend!

I went up to Barbury Castle on Friday night with Sarah and we took the caravan with us which was nice especially considering the weather forecast for Saturday was bad! It was a fun and eventful weekend, think I got a tad too drunk when celebrating my birthday Saturday night! Lol!

Saturday we just had Missiles running in division 7 and they managed to come 4th (seeded 5th)with a best time of 25.08secs, that time was with Ruby running so shows she is starting to influence the speed of that team!

Sunday (My Bithday) was a much busier day with the other 3 teams in 3 out of the 4 divisions. Subsequently we spent all of our time at the ring!

Extraset were first on in division 3 seeded 2nd on 18.91. The team was Jemma, Perry, Smartie, Jamie and Bonnie. We decided to swap Bonnie with Sonny as we didn't think Elliot would be able to run due to skinning his feet! We don't like to run Bonnie all day so we decided to put her on the 5 dog team as we don't like to run Perry all day either. Despite the ground running quite slow, the team ran really well together as always and we had some good, close racing. They managed to win all of their races to finish 1st with a best time of 19.09secs.

Rockets were next in as top seed (18.04) in division 2. The team was Diefer, Merlin, Elliot, Sonny and Loki. Luckily by Sunday morning Elliot's feet looked much better so we decided to let him have a few runs to see how he got on and he was fine. We usually have big problems with consistency with this team but for once they actually ran quite consistent (albeit slightly slower)times! They won all their morning races and by the last race of the day were still unbeaten. Their final race against Barkshire Bandits was very close but they were just pipped in to 2nd place on the 5th and deciding leg by 0.08secs. Merlin is looking great at the moment, when he ran start he was fantastic, hitting 4.47, 4.48 and 4.50secs over his own height of 12". He runs much better start as he is still a little cautious running in to the changeover, i'm sure this will come with time. The team managed a best time of 18.33secs, they did 18.3-18.4 in every race apart from when Loki was out as he is the fastest dog so the team was a little slower.

Ballistics were 2nd seed in division 1 on 16.85secs. The team was Piper, Shani, Lacy, Luna and... Asher! I was told by Smart that I could run him in a couple of races to see how he got on. I ran him in our 1st race against dream team. I was annoyed with myself as my changeovers were so late, I think i was overthinking whether he'd be back to normal speed or whether I'd be releasing from the same spot as before. He ran ok, we managed to go 2-0 down as Piper fumbled the 1st leg and Asher fumbled the 2nd so we were all being cautious on changes (you literally could of got a bus through mine) for the rest of the race. The 3rd leg we ran clean and did 16.63 secs! The next leg we did 16.76 and were able to win the final leg too. Asher sat out the rest of the races until we brought him back in to face Bassetts in the last race of the day. We sat Piper out of the 1st leg so we could get an accurate time for Asher (thats all I can judge him on as he doesn't give me anything else!). My start was awful at 0.14 and the clock read 3.96 (so would of been 3.82) but Shani was a smidge early so it wasn't quite that fast. We brought Piper back in and the next leg Asher fumbled, I think he might be struggling to hold the ball now he is missing 2 of his front teeth, poor boy. He made sure he caught it properly after that which resulted in us gaining a leg back but he was less snappy on the box and on the final leg this resulted in less momentum on the return and Shani getting a light. So we came 2nd but the time was the most important thing as that *should* get us div 1 for the Champs so we can relax now! Asher was fine after racing and at Smart they said the racing had made him no worse which is good. He may now have the rest of July off, I haven't totally decided yet, just want him tip top by the Champs. Piper ran great and managed to run a best ever time of 4.00secs. The other 3 ran ok, maybe just slightly off their usual times but then as I mentioned earlier the ground seemed to be running slow.

And the best news of all, after a right kerfuffle, Luna got her 3rd and final 12" measurement which means we can now get her height card, yay :)

It was a lovely show with lots to watch and the camping area was beautiful. And we got really fit walking the 1m to the ring!

Farnham Park, the June one.

Wow 2 posts in 1 day! Thought I'd better get back up to date! Asher was still out, I was hoping he might be allowed back to do some warm ups but he was still a long way off being ready. Although as I am writing this I feel like we're getting closer.

We ended up missing ALOT of dogs for this tournament so had to make the decision to pull out Rockets. With Mark not their to run Loki (he went to Glastonbury instead, poor show!) we decided not to run him either. This left us with just 4 dogs for Ballistics and 5 for Extraset.

Extraset ran Saturday with a team of Perry, Merlin, Sonny, Smartie and Jamie. Bless little merlie, he was so speedy over the 9", I saw him run a couple of 4.4s! I ran Smartie for the 1st time which after some initial teething problems went really well and I think she quite enjoyed running for crazy auntie Nat! The team had some really close racing but won all their races with a best time of 18.92secs to finish 1st.

The team for Ballistics on Sunday was Diefer, Shani, Lacy, Luna. This was the 1st time Dief had been on the 1st team in over a year and as he is currently clocking times around the 4.5 mark is on average about 0.4 slower then Piper therefore we were pleasantly stunned when in our 1st race of the day we did 16.94secs and beat High Flyers! It just seems insane that a month ago we were struggling to break 17 with our strongest combo and now it's happening even when our top 4 aren't running! I have to say the main difference is Luna closely followed by Shani. Luna ran another best ever time of 4.08secs which is a massive improvement on what she used to run and testament to how much work has been put in to her. I think she is also really enjoying running anchor. With Shani being so amazing I think we were forgetting that she is still such a baby and over the last couple of shows I think has gained alot of confidence in the ring. This means she is running in to changeovers better and holding her speed. She also did a best ever time of 3.89secs and most of her runs were sub 4. It was a very tight division with every team losing atleast 1 race. In the end we came 4th but had we won our last race against Bassetts we would have come 1st! It was great racing. Big congratulations to High Flyers on winning the div with a best ever time for them of 16.54secs and to Bassetts for getting their best ever time of 16.55secs.

I also got to see the grandkids. River and Steve are so big now with their long legs! I've had a soft spot for River since the time they were born and I still totally adore him. He is even more like Asher now (apart from Colour ;)) and has the same lollopy (is that a word?!) gait that Asher had at his age which made me think he was going to be slow! Turns out they don't find that extra gear until they're over a year! Steve is also stunning and has a very striking face but is a little more aloof in personality than his siblings. It was really nice to have the 3 of them together although we didn't get much time to let them play. Hopefully we will have more time at Stockbridge to get the family together!

War Memorial Park, Basingstoke

I decided to just go for the day on Sunday as I had a friends birthday Friday night and I was supposed to be taking Elliot with me so would have had to have left ridiculously early Saturday. In the end Sarah was able to come too which was nice :).

Missiles and Extraset both ran Saturday. Missiles had a tough 7 team division and unfortunately came last but raced well. Extraset despite missing Jemma managed to come 3rd with 19.64secs.

On Sunday we had both Ballistics and Rockets in Division 1. With Asher still out we had Ballistics as Piper, Shani, Lacy, Luna. Rockets were Diefer, Merlin, Elliot, Bonnie, Loki. Rockets threw their 1st race away on lights which was a real shame as they had been 2-0 up and were then a little outclassed by the higher seeds. They did manage to win 1 very close race against Power Paws and also achieved another fastest ever time of 18.04secs, very close to breaking that 18sec barrier now! Ballistics were fantastic, all the dogs raced really well. We were amazed when not only did they manage to go sub 17 several times but they equalled our best ever of 16.85secs. Luna is really starting to pick up some speed now and the fastest I saw her run was 4.15secs. They won all their races to finish 1st and Rockets came 5th.

It was a lovely venue on great ground, lots of teams ran personal bests so congrats to everyone who did well :).