Drax - 10/11 June 2023

This weekend some of the club travelled up to Drax to attend the Focus competition. Camping here were the Hatchers, Claire, Jemma and Tina/Dean. Abi, Beth, Cat, Martin, Gem and Ash couldn't make this one so teams were a bit of a mish mash!! The club also took our lights to be used and we were testing the new lithium batteries.

Saturday dawned bright and warm and we were up early to set up the lights. Ninja Warriors were running today consisting of Eddie (1st time in open), Jessie, Bonnie and Charly. With it being Eddie's first time in open we were expecting anything to happen and it did with Eddie unfortunately having a few spaniel moments and running down the outside of the lane off the box. He was also pretty unsure of leaving Claire so she went back to free running him. Bonnie unfortunately went lame as well so we decided quite quickly to pull the team and go WFC (withdraw from competition) so we could use the day as training and once we put a wing in things began to settle down. During the day we actually clocked a 19.42 with a 0.04 early so we are expecting good things from these 2 pups in the future. The heat grew during the day so all racing was cut down to best of 3 heats in the afternoon.

The lights performed well with only a few hiccups when the gates were knocked but the batteries held up really nicely. Racing finished nice and early so after showers we went to the clubhouse for a meal where a race night was going to be held. Tina, Tine, Dean, Claire and Jemma stayed for a while whilst Chris and Julia went back to dog sit the crew!!

Sunday dawned bright and sunny again and we reset up the lights for another day and following the team captains meeting the head judge decided that due to the impending heat the whole day was going to be best of 3 heats for every race so that we could be finished by the potentially hottest time of the day.

Wash were running today (Indie, Stan, Zarah and Bessie). Although it was hot and the dogs ran slower than usual they put on a good show winning 3 of the 5 races during the day. Their fastest time of the day was 19.98 and they came home wiht 4th place in the division. Brave Warriors were also running today with Lottie, Maggie and Mabel. Lottie ran really well almost running paw perfect. Maggie and Mabel still need some work with Mabel still needing to bring her ball all the way back (she's spitting just before the line which is really annoying!!!). Maggie didn't have Ash with her today (nor Martin) so Tina stepped in as handler. We had fun as she didn't want to go and get her ball so when Jemma had finished running Mabel she ran down to the box to call Maggie!! This did work however and gave Jemma a work out!!