Stocksbridge, Sheffield 22 March 2009

4 teams went to Sheffield to show our ‘Owler V.I.P what they were about these days.  9 months after suffering a massive stroke during the Doncaster competition last June and only 4 months after major brain surgery Julie returned to flyball to a very warm welcome from all the teams present.  It was a very emotional moment for us, let alone her and James as he wheeled her into the sports hall and carried her up to the viewing gallery where she was stationed for the day with her beady eye observing all the teams.  Jo & Craig and Sarah & Richard were also back for their first tournaments since the births of Oscar & Charlie so it was a pretty special and emotional day all round really.

We had another one of those chaotic moments of teams racing each – with the Eagles (Archie, Meg, Jess, Jack, Harvey & Chewy) and the Nights (Lucy X, Mollie, Josh, Bailey & Buddy) against each other in Division 4 as fourth & fifth seeds.

They faced each other in the first race of the day so at least we got the stress over and done with early on!

On paper it should have been a pretty close contest especially with the Nights leaving speedy Mollie out so that Maxine could Captain the Eagles.  The Nights however were in amazing form – the same line up (less one faster dog) that had run only 22.49 on the turf of Doncaster back in December, clocked 21.86 in the first leg!  The Eagles were never going to match that and so the Nights had a comfortable victory, as well as being kind enough under orders to hand the Eagles a leg so it didn’t look so bad!

The Nights proved they were no one race wonders by lowering their time yet again in the second race against top seeds and eventual winners Crazy Crossbows to 21.66.  I have never seen changeovers like it from the handlers in that team, they were brilliant all day and should be very proud of themselves.  Three out of five wins gave them a well deserved second place, not bad for the fifth seeds.

The opening defeat seemed to make the Eagles more determined as they too secured 3 wins and a worthy third place, just behind their team-mates, courtesy of the inter-club loss and a slower time. 

The Marsh (Lucy Lab, Chip, Kim, Stripe & Dylan) had another tough draw seeded 5 in Division 2, but started with a straight leg victory and a great time of 20.81 for dogs not used to running together.  They couldn’t beat the top two seeds though, although they gave it a good go and their 3 victories got them a second place to equal the Nights.

We didn’t know quite what to expect from the Barneys – Jet, Murphy, Brooke & George.  Brooke & Murphy had only trained a couple of times in the last 9 months and whilst we didn’t have any particular concerns about old hand Brooke (in the very capable hands of Auntie Joanna), Murph of course was a different matter entirely!!

Ju and I had long since harboured the idea that Murph would be a good lead dog, as he never seems to set off full speed going into a dog, so with Norah away on hols this was our chance to give it a go.  Of course we hadn’t predicted the extent of total chaos that a pair of very over excited dogs were intent on causing!

Murph indeed shot off great as lead dog but was uncatchable once back, either chasing back up after Brooke or up the other lane, he wasn’t fussy which!  Brooke then decided to get in on the act too and things descended rapidly into a complete farce which had us all in hysterics.  On any other day we would probably have been fuming, but the dogs were so excited at being back, we just couldn’t help it, though I’m sure I could hear Julie cursing from the stands.

Thankfully, we only had 2 morning races and by the afternoon session for safety reasons we went to Plan B with the order of dogs and installed Jet as lead and reverted to a back 3 of years gone by of Brooke, George, Murph.  With the dogs a bit calmer, this was more like it, a bit like putting on an old pair of shoes, even George was still smiling at being bumped up to third, and just like old times we could rely on James to get a fair few lights!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Two victories and the closest contest we have had with the Bellestars for some time, left us in high spirits though and a fourth place rosette was a nice little bonus too.

So two seconds, a third and a fourth not a bad day’s work, I don’t think we would have enjoyed the day much less if we had come away with nothing.  It was a day I had certainly looked forward to, a day when it was much more about the people present being all together for the first time in a long time doing what we do best – having a laugh and mostly at ourselves!

Dog the Day – she may have participated in the chaos initiated by her brother, but there was no doubt the new slim line Brooke was running out of her skin and enjoying every second, she also left us with a huge dilemma about how beneficial her extra inch off might be to the ageing Barney’s she has supposed to have stepped down from!