For the first time we took 3 teams down to Warwickshire and for once the run up to the highlight of the flyball season had gone relatively smoothly compared to previous years.  We took a full complement of 6 for the Nights – Mollie, Kim, Bailey, Buffy, Sam & Stripe.  The girls were expected to be the mainstay of the team as Sam was literally just back from injury, but as luck would have it (unusual for the ‘Owlers) Stripe had appeared to be coming back to something like his old self in training just in time and so was also added in for good measure.

The Hawk, often used to going with just 4 dogs had the luxury of a fifth, with Chip joining Lucy Lab, Buddy, Skye & Dylan.

The Barneys were the same victorious quartet of 12 months ago – Norah, Jet, Floss, George now running in a slightly different order.

The great thing about the Champs is the relaxation time we get between racing, so often we are run ragged at normal competitions with 5 teams in a day or over a weekend, but with 1 team running per day Fri-Sun, there’s time to chill and it’s great, especially with our social crew.  Most of us arrived on the Thursday afternoon to set up camp and Sarah was installed on the official caravan site in charge of cooling drinks (soft ones of course) with the luxury of an electric hook up.  Thursday night we ventured to the local pub for a meal and the 2009 Championship weekend was officially started.

The Nights started the ball rolling in Division 24 on Friday, the line up may well contain 3 “older” ladies in Mollie, Kim & Buffy, but no one appears to have mentioned the “age” factor to any of them.  I shouldn’t have favourites really, but this was the team above all I really wanted to do well; Mollie & Kim had been cruelly ruled out the previous year still on the cusp of kennel cough quarantine, Sam who we hoped would be fit enough for a couple of runs at least, had been written off by his previous club so to compete at a National Championships was a bit of an “up yours”, Stripe appeared to be winning his battle with his epilepsy medication side effects after a couple of months on another planet, Bailey & Emma were at their first Championships and Buffy, well an ‘Owlers team without a Beardie wouldn’t be an ‘Owlers team really!!

Seeded 2 on 21.73, we knew they had a good chance especially after the first leg which they won by a mile with big changes.  They had had much faster seed times earlier in the year, but then had a few bad comps so we knew they were potentially capable of going much faster if back on form, and boy they were!.  Their opponents were all running slower than their seed times whereas our handlers had set their stall out to get the dogs super fit for the weekend and all 6 were at the very top of their form, a pleasure to watch and very easy to captain.  They won every race in straight legs, each dog running superbly and as if to prove how easy it was they threw in a fastest time of 21.10 in the last race.!  1 trophy in the bag and time (after a few celebratory drinks at our compulsory Champs barbeque) to concentrate on the Hawks the following day.

Saturday dawned and it was Lucy Lab, Chip, Buddy, Skye & Dylan’s turn to fly the ‘Owler flag.

They were top seeds in Division 18 on 20.44, but we knew it would be tough as the seed time had been achieved when they borrowed Kim at Scarborough who took an extra inch off for them and to a degree they were an untried line up in competition with Chip joining them.  I stuck to the “normal 4” of Lucy, Bud, Dylan, Skye for the first race as a benchmark to work from and was promptly rewarded by a first leg time of 19.98 – amazing and they had room to spare, the omens were looking good.  A second leg time of 20.09 proved it was no fluke and they won the race in 3 straight legs. 

Race 2 did not go according to plan, although they won the first leg very easily a needless early change in the second lost that leg but they then won comfortably again in the third to go 2-1 up, they just had to keep steady, unfortunately Chip’s ball escaped his mouth over the first jump back and although he did a terrific re-catch in mid air the slight delay in his stride meant Dylan who had already been released got a light, it was just one of those things but put pressure on the last leg.  They only had to take it steady, but Chip had got into fifth gear (the Owlers lurcher section are nothing if not unpredictable) and shot off at great speed far too early into Lucy, so the race was lost.

The third race saw a hard fought 5 leg victory against the eventual division winners Fylde Rollercoasters and that signalled the end of the morning session.  Normal service was resumed after the break with a 3 leg beating of Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Striders, it was down to the last race – if they won it they would still be Champions.  Golden Valley Eagles hadn’t won a race all day, whether we relaxed too much or whether the pressure got to them (which I take full responsibility for building up) I don’t know, but it wasn’t to be.  Golden Valley had got their act together (we’ll blame Andrea who in frustration had coached them from the sidelines in previous races) and in fairness we had 3 tired dogs and changes were a mile out.  It obviously wasn’t written in the stars this year for the Hawks, it was bitterly disappointing and we were all very down knowing it could have been so different, however Fylde were worthy winners having run consistently all day and eventually we were proud of our third place.  These are the young dogs of the club (3 in their first full season) who will no doubt fly the flag for the ‘Owlers for years to come at the Champs and get the victory they deserve.

Sunday – the Barney’s division was last to run so it was a very relaxed build up during the morning for the old stagers.  Although seeded nearly identically to 2008, the increasing number of teams in the country meant this year 18.69 put them in Division 7 whereas last year 18.62 had them in Division 4.

It was a strange feeling that morning, none of the pressure or nerves of previous years, maybe because the 4 dogs had already proved themselves as Champions the previous year, or maybe because my priority had been to see the other 2 teams do well, I don’t know. 

I thought we had a good chance, the seed time had been obtained on a pretty disastrous day at Middlesbrough on our first outdoor run of the season back in May.  The dogs were a lot more race fit of course by this stage in the season and had now settled well (or so we thought!) into the revised order that had had some teething problems up in the North East.  The week prior to the comp we had tried to do some competition style training and they had been running 18.20’s, however, also in that session Floss has started to hog the whole lane coming out leaving a thankfully “wiggly” Jet (she’s not a 60 weave expert by accident) to do a something of a manoeuvre to get through the start gate!

Having learned our lesson from hyping up the Hawks chances the day before, we decided as a team to not look at the time sheets – we didn’t want to know who had beaten who, what times people were running etc, we were going into the ring to do our stuff and we would find out what was what at the end of the day.

We were first race in and with Max & Leanne looking after us, Kim box loading and Michelle, Big G, Christina, Ryan & Frances cheerleading we were ready to roll.

My instruction to the girls (not that they take much notice) was to not over do it on the first leg - good but safe changes to see how the land lay.  They were just that and with plenty in the tank 18.46 proved those training times were correct, there were all sorts of problems and lights going on for Pods in the other lane, we didn’t have to push the dogs or close up changes, the first 3 had the race wrapped up by the time George went up last dog and in customary style he coasted back with his uncanny knowledge that “his girls” had the job done and he could take it easy.  With a straight leg win, never pushed and a best time of 18.44 we went for some shade and to keep an eye on the racing (without looking at times) with a break before we were in again in race 5.

It’s nice to come across some different opponents at the Champs and Cambridgeshire Canines had looked very speedy from a distance, so we went in with the intention of closing up a bit and making sure the last 2 dogs didn’t over do things changeover wise if we were looking comfortable.  The dogs were warmed up nicely now and we took the first leg, there were a couple of false starts in the second and Andrea told us she was playing safe and would leave it late so we all looked at the clock to see how late exactly – 0.26, we won the leg in a time of 18.25 still not really pushing changes and so unofficially we had our first sub 18 run!  A light from Cambridgeshire in the third leg gave us another straight leg victory.

We were in our own little world after that, focused on the task in hand and rightly or wrongly confident and finished the morning session with 3 straight leg victories.  We stuck to our guns didn’t look at what else had gone on at all with the other teams and prepared for the afternoon.

That didn’t go quite as smoothly in that crazy Floss began some strange goings on and started heading straight at Jet as she came out and as Sarah wrestled her to the ground this then left George having to detour around the pair of them floundering on the grass to get up the lane!  Luckily it didn’t matter as the Carry Ons had a light in every leg before I let him go so it didn’t matter we were going in late (though we still came out first!)

Final race against Alpha Dogz, we didn’t know it for certain at this stage (although the team staff apparently did), but we had already won the division going into the race.  From the start of the day I couldn’t help feeling that Alpha may get their revenge on us this year and it was probably our closest race as Floss’ behaviour got more and more bizarre and Sarah was literally waiting on the line to grab her, which slowed her up enormously.  For the first time all day George was going in last, way behind Alpha’s last dog, he’d had it easy most of the day to be honest and it was time he had to put some effort in, there’s nothing the old boy relishes more than a good chase though and the showman had his stage at last and despite Floss’ sabotage efforts he pegged the opposition back and it was another straight leg win. 

A huge thank you to Max, Leanne & Kim for doing sterling jobs for us, I'd told Kim, deputising as box loading for the grounded Claire (dog stting at home) to shout like she had never shouted before (Claire takes some matching in the shouting stakes, even gives me a run for my money) and she certainly did!  Not forgetting the two thirds of the North family who had no intention of missing out on the weekend and left poor Claire home alone to come and shout all the teams on - you 2 are obviously a good luck charm, so get the dates in your diary for next year please!

This probably sounds awful, as we were over the moon to win 2 years in succession with the same dogs, especially with a much faster time considering there is a 7 and an 8 year old in there (bizarre if you ask me), but a bit like the Nights on Friday it was a bit too comfortable, never having to pull out all the stops or test our mettle with pinpoint changes – we really never are satisfied are we?!!

Little did we know the huge surprise of the weekend was still awaiting us.  There is a trophy at the Champs for the club with the highest percentage of wins over the tournament and Katie had twigged that we might at least pick up a placing as we did last year as of course the Nights and the Barneys had a 100% record.  She worked it out – or so she thought.....  with the aid of our professional data inputter Andrea and when they started announcing the results at the presentation starting with fifth position I heared a whisper of “oh we just missed out then, we must have been sixth”.  So you can imagine the gob smacked-ness (great word eh?) when LEEDS ‘OWLERS was announced as the winner by a mile with an 83% winning ratio!

Apart from the mathematicians in the club (only joking) it was my proudest moment ever by a long, long way in the ‘Owlers 5 years, the tears were just about held back – we might not be in the top 10 in the country these days, but we have a tremendous group of people and dogs, who stick together and support each other through thick and thin (flyball and otherwise) and every single member helped us to that trophy – even those who couldn’t be there, but who helped us in our preparation and were willing all the teams on minute by minute 150 miles away by text.  A massive thank you to you all.

2009 will take some beating, but the challenge for that hat trick for the Barneys is already on.  2010 may see a few of our pensioners bowing out, but I wouldn’t bet against them trying to do it in style.

Leeds ‘Owlers 2009 National Championships Role of Honour

Division 24 Champions - Night Owlers

Mollie & Maxine

Kim & Leanne

Buffy & Andrea

Bailey & Emma

Stripe & Kim

Sam & Sarah

Fastest Time: 21.10

Captain - Jane, Box Loader - Katie

Division 18 Third Place - Hawk Owlers

Lucy & Christine

Chip & Helen

Buddy & Michelle

Dylan & Leanne

Skye & Sarah

Fastest Time: 19.98

Captain - Jane, Vice Captains - Andrea & Frances, Box Loader - Katie

Division 7 Champions - Barney Owlers

Norah & Andrea

Floss & Sarah

Jet & Katie

George & Jane

Fastest Time: 18.25

Captain - Maxine, Vice Captain - Leanne, Box Loader - Kim

Dog of the Day – Mollie, Kim, Buffy, Bailey, Stripe, Sam, Lucy, Chip, Buddy, Dylan, Skye, Norah, Floss, Jet & George