We took 4 teams to the annual Christmas show at Doncaster, with a few strange line ups due to a couple of fitness worries that left Bails in great demand as the club height dog!

Norah, Jet, Floss & George were undisturbed as the Barney’s in Div 1 and had an unexpected 3 victories in a 7 team strong division that saw them just pushed into fifth place.  An unusual victory against best mates Dog Friendly (who had the kind of day we often have and they don’t!) started us off, followed by a pretty comfortable win over Sheffield and then the most surprising of all; a 4 leg victory over the eventual second placed speedy Kiddy Minsters team - 3 out of 3 in the morning session!  The afternoon brought us down to earth with a bump though losing all 3 to the Crazies, Doncaster and Demonz.  Our times for the day were appalling, a best of 18.99, but it seemed the same for most of the teams so maybe it was particularly dead turf or something, who knows?

The Marsh of Chip, Skye, Dylan & Stripe were joined by Buffy replacing Lolly who was having just a few of runs over lower jumps for a mini outing after a few soundness problems.  They had a huge task with 4 out of their 5 opponents having mid 19 sec seed times and so it proved as they failed to win a race despite taking a few legs and had a best time of 20.60. 

The Nights had an even more bizarre line up Josh, Mollie & Kim were joined by Buddy and Lucy having her first full comp as a dog in her own right rather than sharing a spot with brother Archie.  She ran great to start with getting faster with each leg as she got used to open racing, unfortunately she got spooked by something in the afternoon and started doing an odd run out so we finished her for the day, but she will be back in the groove very soon I’m sure.  A promoted Buddy rose to the occasion big style looking his best for a long while so he’s in serious training now as there’s a lot more in him if he puts the effort in!  Despite running a best of 22.49 way below their seed time of 20.98, the Nights lost only one t(he first race of the day) and were worthy if not very surprise winners of Division 3 – well done gang J

Now the Eagles on paper were the beneficiaries of the reshuffle with Lolly in there to do a bit despite not being fully fit and Claire was under strict instructions to keep changeovers big to try and not destroy the seed time too much or scare dogs that weren’t used to foaming at the mouth Lolly going into them!  However, if during the morning session I had asked a knowledgeable stranger which dog in their opinion had been dropped down from the second to the fourth team for the day, without any disrespect to the others whatsoever, there was only one dog they could possibly have considered and that was Sam – normally the “steady eddy” of the whole club! Sam came back to Flyball with sister Floss after injury and a long break in June having previously raced with another club and has come along very nicely, coming through starters and no longer having to go last dog as he has become very brave with his new mates, but he still goes up like a real speed merchant and potters back double striding all the way, usually running between 5.75 – 6.25 seconds.  Not today, he did seem even giddier than ever before racing, but nothing quite prepared us for what was to come – all of a sudden Sam really did become the man!  Whether we will ever see it again, who knows, but he was flying both ways; only half watching the first time he ran I did a double take as I thought I saw him single stride the last couple of jumps back, when I saw the look of absolute amazement on Sarah’s face I knew I wasn’t imagining things and he got faster and faster it was unbelievable.  When he moved up to lead dog for a couple of races Sarah was setting off further back then she does with 4.8 sec Skye!!  The turbo powered addition to the Eagles saw them take home second place with a fastest time of 22.44 (yes Nights that is correct LOL!) they really had a great day with Chewy also running foot perfect.

Dog of the Day – no prizes for guessing it’s Sam, he may have reverted back to his “normal” self in the afternoon, but after clocking a best time of 5.05 in the morning, beating his previous best by well over half a second there is no rival!

It was a lovely comp to finish 2008 on as always, it’s been an awful year in many respects from a human point of few, but there have been some long overdue flyballing highlights.  In 2009 we welcome back new parents Jo & Craig, our very own determined superwoman Julie & bodyguard James, not forgetting the Harpins now +2, at least for the more local comps.  We may have a fair few veterans in the dog ranks these days, but let’s hope now we are all reunited that we repeat some of the great successes of the past year in 2009 for everyone to share.