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 :).

Broken Asher and Padworth

Well it turns out I wasn't being paranoid afterall. Took Asher to Smart on Wednesday and he has got a problem with his right hind leg (same leg he injured before). At some point (I think in hindsight it was when he slipped at training back in Feb) he has damaged his gracilis muscle (inner thigh) which has healed but because of the scar tissue and it not healing in the right way it has left this muscle very tight causing a lump and it is putting a lot of strain on the tendon. This is why he has been slower at flyball as he cannot push strongly off of this leg and is struggling to control his approach to the box. All makes sense now, feel REALLY guilty that I didn't get him looked at before and also massively relieved that I didn't leave it any longer. Apparently if I had waited until the end of the season he could of been looking at a very lengthly lay off. As it is we think it will be 2-3 weeks but I think it's unlikely he'll be back doing flyball until Barbury Castle on 9-10th July. We have lots of exercises to do and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he has made progress when we go back to Smart on Weds. His injury is very common in Whippets and Greyhounds, but our physio said they would have been hopping not walking in, just shows what a tough dog he is, Collies are their own health hazard!

So that leads me to Padworth, despite Asher not being able to run I decided to go anyway to support the team. We had all teams and all people there. Extraset and Rockets ran Saturday.

Extraset dogs (Jemma, Sonny, Smartie, Perry and Jamie) were on fire and annihilated their seed time by running 18.91secs in the 1st race. They went on to win all their races and the division. Jemma was really focused and ran 4.4s in the 1st race and quite consistent 4.5s after that. Sonny's diet and fitness work seems to really be paying off as he ran so much more consistently and had a best time of 4.52secs. Smartie wasn't quite on her usual times but still ran well as did Perry. Jamie also looked really good even managing 5.02secs which is great for him.

Rockets (Diefer, Merlin, Elliot, Bonnie, Loki) were up against some pretty tough competition in Div 2. Overall the team did really well and won 3 of their races to finish 3rd with a best time of 18.40secs. Diefer seems to be getting more confident over 12" and I think we are getting more confidence in him! Merlin was a little inconsistent and seemed quite unsettled. He didn't do anything wrong but his times were quite variable depending on how confident he was going out. Elliot had much better box turns but I think the extra distance and speed he was coming off the box with meant he thought he could run back on a single stride (we taught him to add another stride between box and 1st jump over winter) which wasn't working for him! This meant his run back was slower and he was jumping very high. We will have to put the guide in for him at the next competition. Bassetts were kind enough to let us borrow some soft balls to try Bonnie with which I think helped her but will be something we need to try a few more times to see how much difference it makes. Loki ran great hitting a few 4.2s. Unfortunately their was an incident in the afternoon that shook him up and resulted in him being reluctant to run in the last race of the day. We are hopeful that it was just a blip and he will be fine this weekend. We also hope that the owner of the other dog involved isn't too upset and will be back racing!

We had a great night Saturday. Me, Carol and Mark took advantage of the playground on site which was very fun but I am now covered in a ridiculous amount of bruises and I only remember how I got 1 of them! This meant I really wasn't with it Sunday (no change there!), probably a good job I wasn't running a dog!

After a beautiful day Saturday we were greeted by lots of rain on Sunday. Missiles and Ballistics were running. I wasn't up in time for missiles morning racing but I saw them in the afternoon and they looked good. Ruby continues to improve and I don't think it'll be too long before she's catching reliably. I think she could be a quick little height dog when she does. They won 2 of their races and finished 3rd.

Ballistics (Piper, Shani, Lacy, Luna) were 3rd seed in div 1. We weren't really too sure what to expect times wise without Asher. They gelled really well together, we decided to try lacy going 3rd as her box turns had been wide running last. Her turns did improve but I don't think she was significantly faster. Luna ran great last though so we will probably keep that order for the time being. They won both their morning races against Shooting Stars and Shooting Star Comets with a best time of 17.16secs which we were really pleased with. Unfortunately as the day went on the rain got harder and the ground more slippery so the decision was made to call off the racing before Ballistics raced again.

We're off to Basingstoke this weekend, another new venue so be interesting to see what its like. Again Asher's not running but I think I will be running Elliot!

Becketts Farm 16.85 :-D

Well we had thee most amazing day at Becketts Farm on Sunday. We had Ballistics as 2nd seed in div 1. Rockets and Extraset were in div 2 as 1st and 5th seeds respectively. Having all the usual dogs for these teams was great as it meant we had 3 teams of 5 dogs and all teams were at full strength.

Rockets were Diefer, Merlin, Elliot, Bonnie, Loki running over 12" and Extraset were Jemma, Perry, Sonny, Smartie, Jamie running over 9". Div 2 was a very hectic division to say the least. I was running Perry in Extraset but also helping out Rockets so it felt like we were barely out the ring. Was quite fun though!

Rockets were typical rockets, moments of brilliance and moments of chaos! They managed to lose their 1st race on lights, 2nd race was against Extraset which was great! Rockets really got their act together and managed to pull out a fantastic time of 18.16secs with a line-up of Diefer, Merlin, Bonnie and Loki. This is another fastest ever time for Rockets. Needless to say they beat Extraset! They continued to win the rest of their races fairly comfortably although the range of times they ran was huge! They also managed 18.44secs twice in a row in the last race of the day, more amazingly they were with a different line up for each one! We recorded splits for all the dogs although I don't think they give a true representation for this team as changes were sooo variable! Fastest times were: Diefer 4.52, Merlin 4.61, Elliot 4.53, Bonnie 4.54, Loki 4.24. This doesn't include the race against each other where I suspect faster times were run as we were too short on people to do times for that one! Despite losing 1 race they still managed to win the division!

Extraset were more consistent apart from 1 nightmare race where Sonny started dropping his ball, luckily we managed to bring it back! Jemma was fine after her incident last weekend and ran very consistently all day. The rest of the team also gelled well together and managed to win all their races except for the 1 against Rockets with a new best ever time of 19.62secs. The line-up was Jemma, Sonny, Smartie, Jamie. We have to be quite careful now with the seed time as we don't always have Jemma due to Sarahs uni stuff and Jem is the fastest dog on the team! Dogs fastest times: Jemma 4.54, Perry 5.18, Sonny 4.65, Smartie 4.58, Jamie 5.19. This meant Extraset came 2nd!

Ballistics had a team of Piper, Asher, Shani, Luna, Lacy. Asher the total muppet stole some food not long before we were due to race. I never give him breakfast before racing as he always runs considerably slower. It was a bit gutting knowing that even before we entered the ring that he wasn't going to be himself. I decided I would only run him in the 1st race as we weren't sure exactly how much he'd eaten or how long ago. As suspected he was well off his pace but seemed fine other than that. 1st race we went for a time and left Lacy out. 1st leg flowed really well and we did 16.85secs :-). As planned I left Asher out for the rest of the morning. The other 4 did great winning the next 2 races with a best time of 17.32secs. In the afternoon Asher ran the 3 remaining races. He looked alot snappier in the 1st race of the afternoon and managed some sub 4s...just! Our last race was against Bassetts, we'd won all our races up to that point but they'd managed a 16.59secs earlier on. It was a fantastic race which went to 5 legs. They won the 1st on speed, we won the 2nd on speed with a 16.98secs, 3rd we both got lights on last dog but they were able to turn around quicker, 4th and 5th they got lights which meant we won! Dogs fastest times: Piper 4.05 (PB), Asher 3.97, Shani 4.12, Luna 4.29, Lacy 4.37 (Just because I'm a nerd... this technically means we could of done 16.43secs which is very encouraging ;-)!).

We had a fantastic day, couldn't of asked for anymore. We've got a weekend off now so we're going to train our new starters (and do tiny bits with Miss Laika!) and do some boxwork particularly with the babies that have come out this year to try and maintain their turns. Got to continue the fitness work with Asheroo. I'm also thinking of taking him back to Smart to be checked over to put my mind at rest that nothing else is going on to slow him down. He will be thrilled, my bank balance will not!

Farnham Park 16.96 :-D

Urmmm do I really need to write anything else?! ;-)

Ok, we had 4 teams in. Extraset and Rockets ran Saturday. Extraset were on 1st in division 7 with a team of Jemma, Perry, Smartie and Jamie. Things all started well, Jem was really focused and all the dogs were running consistently. We won the 1st race with a best time of 19.90 (0.05 off our seed time). Unfortunately Jemma got injured in the last leg of the 2nd race which meant we were down to 3 dogs for the rest of the day. Amazingly those 2 wins managed to get us 3rd place as we were in a 3 way tie and had the fastest time!

Rockets were in division 6 with a team greatly strengthened by the return of thee Diefer (and everyones fingers, toes and just about everything else crossed that he would do 12")! Team was Dief, Merlin, Elliot, Sonny and Loki. As Sarah was there to run Mr E I was in charge of the team. It was a real pleasure, all the dogs ran so well. So happy for Claire that Dief ran over the 12, and he looked really good running 4.4s. He's not at race fitness yet either so hopefully there is more to come from him. Merlin was flying, he ran consistently at 4.6s all day which is about 0.2 faster than he was running when he came out. Elliot ran around 4.6s and box turn seemed better than at Anstey Park but again improved through the day. Sonny was good in the early races running around 4.7s but tired towards the end of the day. Loki was awesome, he is just so strong coming back and really proved himself in our race against fantastic 4 when he was going out just behind their last (v quick) dog and managed to run a new PB of 4.17secs to win us the race. I hope he keeps this up, then he might be shifted up a team! The team managed to win 4 out of 5 of their races just losing 1 race on silly lights to come 1st with a best time (and fastest ever for Rockets) of 18.30secs! Yay! There was definitely still some room on the changeovers too!

Ballistics and Missiles ran Sunday. Unfortunately they were both on at the same time (in different rings) which meant I didn't get to see much of the Missiles racing. I think they managed to win 2 of their races and came 4th. Ballistics were 5th seed in division 1. We had a team of Asher, Shani, Luna and Lacy in that order. 1st race against Shooting Stars we finally managed to get our act together to run a new fastest ever time of 16.96secs and enter the 16s club, woohooo! And I was late on my start with a 0.13, terrible! We lost very narrowly to Shooting Stars, they hit a 16.92 in the same race. We continued to have close racing for the rest of the day and we were fairly conistent with our times running low 17s. We also did a 16.88 with a very small light on Shani due to Asher slightly fumbling the ball. We managed to win our races against Jets, Bassetts and Lightning. We lost very narrowly to High Flyers on a light on the 2-2 deciding leg! Jolly Jumpers beat us pretty convincingly but annoyingly that was the race where our changes were the furthest out and we weren't that far behind! So we finished 4th. Although I couldn't really of cared less, the time was enough for me :-). Asher ran 3.8s in the 1st race of the morning and afternoon but got really tired as the racing went on. I'm now thinking it might just be fitness as maybe I've wrapped him in cottonwool and haven't pushed him as much as I should out on walks. I've rectified this now and I don't think he quite knows whats hit him! Shani ran sooo much better in the pack and went back to running 4-4.1s. Luna was flying, running quite consistent (so I'm told) 4.3s. Lacy was a touch inconsistent as it was her 1st time running anchor and she was relishing the opportunity to race the other team. This meant for the 1st couple of races she was coming quite wide off the box. She was alot better in the afternoon so hopefully the wide turns won't continue or she won't be able to go last either! Other than the turns her foot speed was really good and I understand she hit a few 4.2s which is excellent for her.

I'm so thrilled to join the 16s club and I'm so proud of my team and how far we have come over the last couple of years, lets hope we keep on progressing and getting faster. Thanks to everyone who has sent messages of congratulations, it really means alot!