BFA Outdoor Champs - Driffield - 18 - 20th August 2023

This was a long week for us as Chris, Julia and Tina travelled to Driffield on the Monday 14th August as they were helping in the set up week. Luckily for us we were camping right next to the ring area so after setting up the camp on Monday evening working on Tuesday and Wednesday entailed not too much walking to the central area. Julia and Tina were roped in early helping with sorting T shirts and gifts until the ring canopies were up and they could help with the ring set up. Chris was given a driving job (right up his street) delivering items all over the camping area (which was huge) as there were around 650 camping units due to arrive for the weekend.

Wednesday saw the arrival of Tine/Dean, Jemma/Ash with Abi, Gem and Claire arriving on Thursday am.

Thursday dawned and was time trials day. All 3 teams were running today to set times for the weekend and to be slotted into appropriate divisions. Vikings (Flo, Bonnie, Willow, Charly and Maggie) ran well and set 21.42s as their time with Maggie and Willow running well. Wash (Stan, Zarah, Pip and Indie) set 19.78 as their time. Aztec (Blue, Bessie, Jessie and Eddie) set a time of 18.96s however Jessie decided she was not going to play ball and decided to spit before the line and we only managed 2 clear runs within the 9 available during the day. Eddie however was on form and ran really well along with Blue and Bessie.

Friday was Foundation, Pairs and Singles day. Blue and Pip had a play today with Gem running Pip and Dean was allocated to run Blue as Martin and Olly were not arriving until late Friday pm. Blue and Pip had loads of fun and set a 9.09 time as their best. Lottie and Mabel joined Moltens in their foundation team 'Molten Warriors' with Molten's dogs. Lottie ran paw perfect all day and Mabel had 5 clear runs during the day. We were really pleased with all of them. Both came 4th in their divisions.

Jack also got to play today and took part in an introduction to hoopers session which he took to with gusto as there was plenty of sausage involved!!

Saturday was the start of open racing with both Vikings and Wash running today. Vikings had been set in Div 25 and started the morning well winning 2 of the 3 races. Both races in the afternoon were lost however and at the end of the day they came 5th in their division with a fastest time of 22.01s. However both Willow and Maggie ran really well for their 1st champs. Jack had been added to the team for the weekend but Julia had decided to retire him officially this weekend and both of them took part in a 'retirement parade' at presentation.

Wash were placed in div 17 and also ran well during the day winning 3 of the 5 races during the day and setting a fastest time of 20.20s. We were well surprised when they came away with 2nd place in their division - runners up -- well chuffed!!

Also during the day the team took a turn in Admin running 2 rings in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. Olly managed to clock up some more junior points - running Flo, ball collecting and helping as a runner for admin in the morning.

Sunday was Aztec's turn placed in div 14. The first heat they set a time of 18.81s (not far of breaking out) and we all thought that this was the day it was coming right!! Oh noooo, Jessie decided that although she would bring her ball back today running back over the jumps was not something she was going to do and in the end after struggling to get her back we decided we would pull the team and go wfc to ensure we corrected her. It took an effort but we did get some more clears at the end of the day. We will persevere with this team as we know what potential they have.

Sunday proved to be a long day and racing ran well overdue with presentation being done in the dark. All the club packed up and left, leaving Tina and Julia until the end as Tina had been judging and was required at presentation. They were the last to get home at 1am!!! However the week had been good and everyone had enjoyed themselves.